Bringing Business to the Table: Involving Chambers of Commerce & Their Members for Higher
Bringing Business to the Table: Involving Chambers of Commerce & Their Members for Higher Education Attainment
A Research Report Written and Compiled by the American Chambers of Commerce Executives and Partners for Livable Communities
February 2012
Contents
Introduction Page 3
Defining a Chamber Page 5
Capacity: Elevating the Attainment Message Page 6
Chambers’ Revenue, Membership and Staff Size
Chamber Staff Dedicated to this Work
Chambers with Foundations (501c3)
Engagement:Current Programs and Interest AreasPage 9
Chambers Engaged in this Work
Chambers involved in Workforce Development Board
Local Engagement Types
Effectiveness of Engagement
Future Areas of Interest
Opportunities and Barriers Page 11
Chamber Aspirations
Potential Partnerships
AppendixPage 15
Case Study: The Los Angeles Chamber
Resources
Introduction
Bringing Business to the Table is an initiative to develop strategies for improving higher education attainment (degrees and credentials) in the United States through chamber of commerce and business involvement. This project is led by the American Chambers of Commerce Executives (ACCE) and Partners for Livable Communities (Partners), and supported by Lumina Foundation for Education, the nation’s largest private foundation focused on increasing higher educational attainment in America. Lumina has forged ambitious goals for itself and the nation; its Goal2025 seeks to increase the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025.
Goal 2025 is the driver for this work: educational attainment improvement is too critical to regional and national competitiveness to leave solely to governments and educators. The workforce of the 21st century will be a product of the higher education systems; businesses need to exert influence on the system to ensure needs are being met. The United States’ postsecondary education attainment and completion statistics, compared to other advanced nations, are discouraging. Without the active help of the business community—individually through corporate leadership and collectively through chambers and similar entities—Lumina’s ambitious goal of increasing American degree attainment may be impossible to achieve.
This project will be completed throughout 2012: initial research and surveys will create a framework for three high-level meetings with chambers of commerce, business representatives, and community leaders held at Lumina Foundation headquarters in Indianapolis, IN.Meetings willinclude presentations by leading researchers and practitioners in the field, and facilitated brainstorming, discussions, and visioning for successful community-wide strategies to promote chamber and business involvement in higher education.
The first of the three meetings will be held on February 13-14, 2012 with nearly 30 chambers and 50 participantsin attendance. Chambers currently involved in this work will share the nature and effectiveness of specific programs, along with their successes and motivating factors (recommendations for replicating their good work), and challenges met along the way. Chambers not currently involved with this work, but who have high aspirations to begin, will discuss factors both within their individual chamber, city, and region that inhibit their involvement. These obstacles will become key talking points as the participants discuss nascent strategies and solutions to increase business and chamber involvement in this work.
Research Report
This research report examines the current climate ofchambers of commercethat are either currently involved, or have aspirations to become involved, in higher education attainment andworkforce development (defined here as the “work”). The reportprovides a beginning framework and national context for Bringing Business to the Table.
This research will identify (a) best practices of chambers with active post-secondary education programs and policies at the local, regional, and state level, and (b) what support chambers need if they would like to become active and effective with this work. From this research, the Bringing Business to the Table Team[1] will better understand strategies that can significantly increase the business community’s involvement in elevating higher education attainment.
How many chambers of commerce are already involved in significant higher education attainment strategies in their communities and their region? Of those chambers involved, what are their impetuses for involvement, and how has their involvement benefitted the community and their organization? Do those chambers not currently involved in this work see the need to be involved, but face specific barriers to participation? If so, can those barriers be mitigated by forming unique partnerships in the community, tapping outside resources, or assessing new strategies? Are there also chambers not currently involved in higher education that do not see the need to be involved, the work being done by some chambers that are involved, and if so, can they be convinced?
To complete this research, a survey was conducted within the membership network of the American Chambers of Commerce Executives and 226 chambers of commerce participated.Surveyed chambers are located in communities of all sizes and in regions across the nation. Participating chambers range from those with fewer than five full-time staff and $450K or less in revenue, to those with dozens of employeesand millions in revenue; the survey attempts to take the pulse of chambers of commerce in America, a pulse which this initiative intends to refine throughout the entirety of this project. The goal of this survey was to gauge existing chamber efforts and interest in education issues across the county.
Defining Chambers of Commerce in America
A chamber of commerceis a voluntary organization of businesses seeking mutual prosperity while advancing the interests of their community, region, state or nation. Chambers have existed in the U.S. for more than two centuries, with many having been establishedbeforethe political jurisdictions they represent.
Most chambers are independent and led by private-sector employers. They are self-funded and organized around boards/committees of volunteers.Chamber missions vary, but they all tend to focus on five primary goals:
- Building communities (regions/states/nations) that attract residents, visitors and investors
- Promoting those communities
- Striving to ensure future prosperity via a pro-business climate
- Representing the unified voice of the employer community
- Reducing transactional friction through well-functioning networks.
Chambers seek sustained prosperity of their community/region, built on thriving employers. Most are ardent proponents of the free market system, resisting attempts to overly burden private sector enterprise and or limit investment.
Local businesses voluntarily pay dues to their chamber, and it is not unusual for non-profits, quasi-public and even public sector employers to pay dues to belong.The membership, acting collectively, elects a board of directors and/or executive council to set policy for, and guide the workings of, the chamber. The board or executive committee hires a chief executive and authorizes an appropriate number of staff to run the organization.
In most countries, use of the term "chamber of commerce" is regulated by statute, although this is not the case in the U.S.Only trademark, copyright and domain name rules protect a chamber’s identity. Only state corporation law and the IRS define their existence and reason for being. While most chambers work closely with government, they arenot a government entity.
Chambers have a long history of involvement in education reform issues and community-specific school improvement initiatives. Because of their capacity to cross lines and build consensus, chambers are the logical partner to engage in order to explore higher education attainment improvement.
Globally, there are more than 12,000 chambers listed in the official World Chambers Network registry.In the U.S., there are roughly 3,000 chambers of commerce with at least one full-time staff person, and thousands more established as strictly volunteer entities.
Capacity: Elevating the Message within the Chamber/Business Community
The Bringing Business to the Table survey was administered by the American Chamber of Commerce Executives in January 2012. A total of 226 chambers participated; the following outlines a statistical profile of the participating chambers by revenue, chamber membership size, and chamber staff size.
Table 1
Table 2
Table 3
Chamber Staff Dedicated to this Work
Chambers describe staff that are currently dedicated to education and workforce development efforts (Table 4). Over ¼ of the chambers state that only 1% - 5% of their staff is dedicated to this work (14% report no staff are dedicated), while 8.8% of chambers state that over 30% of their staff are dedicated to this work. Over ½ of the chamber staff involved in this work are senior staff, while 32% of the chamber staff are middle managers (table 5).
Table 4
Table 5
Chamber Foundations
Chambers reported whether or not they have an active 501(C)3, or foundation, associated with their chamber (table 6). Chamber foundations may enhance the role of the chamber as a community builder, and support programs and resources.Foundations can provide community aid in the form of grant-making and scholarships, assisting with community development efforts, business start-ups, education, industrial development, and more.
Table 6
Engagement: Current Programs and Interest Areas
Many United States’ chambers are currently engaged in the work of raising higher educational attainment or are involved in workforce development efforts within their communities or regions. Chambers were asked to report current engagement in this work on a scale from 1-5, with 1 being the least engaged and 5 being the most engaged. 31.4% of chambers reported being the most engagedin this work, while 14% of chambers are the least engaged. The remaining chambers are peripherally involved or moderately engaged in this work (table not pictured).
Of the chambers currently engaged in this work, a majority describe that local institutions of higher education serve as part of their normal chamber activity (table 7). 93.5% of chambers have local colleges or universities as chamber members; 78.6% have a college or university on their committees and councils; and 72.6% have a college or university on their chamber’s governing board.Many chambers responded in the survey with detailed responses about their current work (see Appendix).
Table 7
Over 60% of chambers are involved in their local workforce development boards, which highlights the chambers’ believe in the importance of their community's involvement in developing workers' skills.
Table 8
Of the chambers currently engaged in higher education achievement and workforce development efforts, only one quarter of the chambers rate their work as very effective, while a majority rate their work as somewhat effective (64.4%), and 6.3% state that their work is not effective at all (table 9).
Table 9
Opportunities and Barriers: Increasing the Dialogue to Develop Innovative Solutions
Survey participants were asked to rate their interest levels forbecoming active or growing current impact in each of the following areas: Early Childhood Education, K-12 Education, Higher Education and Workforce Development. Chambers are most interested (83%) in workforce development, followed by K-12 education (67%), and higher education (63%). Only 28% of chambers cite that early childhood education is their greatest area of interest, while 31% of chambers state that they arenot interested in becoming involved with early childhood education initiatives.
Table 10
The results are clear—chambers are focused on increasing the success and effectiveness of their workers, and supporting the K-12, colleges, and universities, for those technical, 2-year, and 4-year degree seekers to achieve their maximum potential. In a survey of U.S. Chambers and civic enterprises conducted by The University of Phoenix, eight-in-ten employers believe that a college education is necessary to achieve success in the workplace today, and half of employers feel that a college education offers employees an excellent return on investment.[2]
Surveyed chambers recognize the direct benefits of their involvement both for their organization, and for their community, but 75% of chambers allege specific challenges to success in this work (table 11). The top barrier (56.7%) is a lack of capacity in terms of staff; nearly ½ of the chambers surveyed (119) have 1-5 full time staff. The second highest barrier is funding (47.6%), and the third isa lack of expertise (19.9%).
Table 11
While a lack of capacity in terms of staff and funding present a more complex picture to be solved,ACCE and Partners believe that the latter can be met through trainings, conferences, and networking with chambers and businesses involved in some best practice initiatives. During the three meetings with chambers and community leaders, participants will discuss these barriers in details and will brainstorm possible solutions.
Participating chambers hail from rural, suburban, and urban locals; thriving metropolises, and struggling cities and towns. Table 12 describes the involvement of surveyed chambers’ cities, states, and regions in higher education achievement or workforce development. A majority (75.9%) of chambers report having local, state, or other college success initiatives; 68.6% of chambers report that their city, state, or region is actively engaged in state budget issues affecting higher education.
Additionally, 51.9% of chambers have state education policies in effect (such as Race to the Top, Common Core Standards, State Assessment Systems, and more). One quarter of the chambers report that their cities are competing in the Talent Dividend competition, led byCEOs for Cities,The Kresge FoundationandLumina Foundation for Education, that will award a city $1 million dollars for the greatest increase in the number of post secondary degrees granted per one thousand population over a four-year period.
Table 12
Partnerships Leveraged to Advance the Work of Chambers
To increase the proportion of Americans with high-quality degrees and credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025, the heavy lifting cannot solely be left to governments and educators. Bringing Business to the Table is a means to challenge chamber and business involvement in closing the higher education achievement gap, but in order to be successful, even businesses cannot act alone.
From the chamber survey (table 13), chambers of commerce rank the types of institutions in the community that would be the most beneficial and least beneficial to leverage in a chamber or business’ involvement with higher education. Highest was the business community (69.5%),followed by civic leaders (46%), politicians (37.6%), and community volunteers (23.5%). Partners for Livable Communities and ACCE agree with the chambers’ analysis that after partnering with other businesses, the most successful partner in this work are civic leaders.
Also known astrustees of a community[3], civic leaders are individual men and women with great experience and knowledge of a community, as well as great influence. Trustees of a community sit on overlapping boards of civic institutions and frequently, 15-20 women or men may interlock with 10-12 key institutions that, if mobilized, can support an educational attainment challenge to the broad community. Therefore, civic leaders should really be assessed to see what networking of institutions they could bring on board to partner with business and chambers for educational attainment, and to meet Lumina Foundation’s Goal 2025.
Table 13
Appendix
Case Study: The Los Angeles Chamber
Location: Los Angeles, CA
Target Population: P-16 Education and Workforce Development
As the largest and most influential business association in Los Angeles County, the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce is the voice of business in the region. For more than 120 years, the L.A. Area Chamber has served the needs of business through its programs and advocacy initiatives. Established in 1998, the nonprofit organization UNITE-LA, an affiliate of the L.A. Area Chamber, leads collaborative education reform efforts, promotes business-education partnerships, expands college access, and provides workforce development opportunities for youth in the Los Angeles Area.
The L.A. Area Chamber and UNITE-LA have a vision that all Los Angeles area students will gain the education and overall development to thrive and achieve economic and personal success. The mission is to promote and support the development of an effective public education system in Los Angeles, emphasizing business and community partnerships with schools. If carried out, the mission would ensure that all students have access to education and training opportunities preparing them for high-skill, high-wage employment in a fulfilling career of choice, resulting in a thriving regional economy.
The L.A. Chamber leads numerous programs with a variety of focuses: Pillar is a partnership between the L.A. Area Chamber and the Los Angeles Unified School District to create new business-education partnerships to strengthen schools and produce a world-class workforce. Principal for a Day and Executive for a Day connect more than 2,000 business executives and public school principals for a day of hands-on exchange to foster an understanding about the opportunities and challenges of leading a public school and build relationships between businesses and schools.
The L.A. Compact is a historic education reform collaborative that commits the City’s elected, business, education, labor and community leaders to ensure that all students graduate from high school, have access to and are prepared for college, and have the skills necessary for sustainable jobs and careers. Themed Small Schools and Small Learning Communities help transform challenged schools into high-performing Linked Learning schools by providing technical assistance and strategic planning to provide career-based learning programs for students in every industry. Job Shadow Day is a partnership with Junior Achievement of Southern California to provide job shadowing opportunities for local high school students. The Los Angeles School Development Institute supports the development of high-performing schools by offering assistance in school curriculum and instruction, school culture, assessment and school data, staffing and operations, and special populations.