Can Your United Way Do This?
While driving to the airport, I saw a billboard for Goodwill along the highway. The design of the billboard was rather plain, with muted colors, and a smiling person.
But what really caught my attention were the six words on the billboard: “Donating to Goodwill helps create jobs.” Just six words – simple, powerful, and effective at 70 m.p.h. These six words tell me what my contribution to Goodwill accomplishes in the community, and if I had not donated to Goodwill, suggest why I might want to donate to Goodwill.
Six Words
Can your United Way’s message fit on a billboard in six words? The challenge for every United Way is to be able to finish the sentence “Donating to United Way ______________” in a couple of words.
This means you would not be able to list all of your focus areas such as education, income, health, basic needs, etc. You would also be unable to list all of your partner agencies or funded programs.
If you can’t talk about everything in six words, perhaps you can find one thing to focus on such as reducing poverty or ending homelessness? Think carefully about all that you do at your United Way, and I’ll bet there is an issue that rises to the top. You will probably have some outcomes and results for this issue along with stories of people facing this issue who have been helped by United Way.
Try fitting that issue into your “Donating to United Way ____________” sentence. It might be impossible to get it down to six words, but you should definitely be able to make it work in no more than seven to nine words.
Be careful of the trap of saying “Donating to United Way helps people.” While you can make the case that United Way does indeed help people, so can every other nonprofit organization. You can learn more about why “helps people” is not the best way to complete this sentence in our previous blog post Stop Being Helpful!
If your United Way is going to compete effectively against other nonprofits, donors must be able to clearly understand why they should give to your United Way. When you are able to finish the sentence “Donating to United Way __________” then your donors will understand why they should give.
The Question You Must Answer
Why is it such a challenge for United Ways to finish the sentence “Donating to United Way __________”? For most United Ways, it is because United Way tries to be everything to everyone, does a little bit of everything, and is a mile wide and an inch deep. Quite simply, most United Ways lack focus.
You might be thinking that the strength of your United Way is the fact that you try to do everything for everyone and do a little bit of everything, so why do you need a focus? When we ask United Way donors if they would like their United Way to allocate money to a variety of local nonprofit organizations and programs <or> if they would like their United Way to focus on making measurable change addressing a critical social issue in their community, on average, 85% of donors want United Way to focus on making measurable change addressing a critical social issue in their community – only 15% of donors want United Way to raise money to allocate to a variety of local nonprofit organizations.
While I believe every United Way should be able to finish the sentence “Donating to United Way __________” in six words, the question you must be able to answer is “What is the focus of your United Way?”
What is the Focus of Your United Way?
Issue focused United Ways choose an issue, like poverty, homelessness, the graduation rate, or kindergarten readiness, and they lead and convene the community to make measurable change on that issue. Instead of a campaign goal, their success is measured by the number of families no longer living in poverty, people who now have a home, students who graduated from high school, or children that are ready for kindergarten. Rather than allocating funds a mile wide and an inch deep, they invest deeply in programs and services that address their issue.
When a United Way is issue focused, people know exactly what their contribution will accomplish because an issue focused United Way only addresses one issue with an inspiring goal for success. Issue focused United Ways ask donors and funders to give to reduce poverty, end homelessness, increase the graduation rate, or have every child enter kindergarten ready to learn and not for a campaign goal.
In our work with over 140 United Ways, we have found that nearly every United Way can identify an issue or two they are already addressing more than other issues. Becoming issue focused does not mean your United Way needs to start over, it just means that over time you will focus your efforts on addressing that issue that you are already working on.
You can learn more about how an issue focus will transform your United Way by watching our free United Way Survival Guide video.
Finding Your Answer
We have helped United Ways of all sizes find the answer to the question “What is the focus of your United Way?” The first step is to have an honest and open conversation with your board and staff during our New Directions Board and Staff Retreat. This half-day board retreat clearly explains the different types of United Ways, why each type of United Way exists, what each type of United Way looks like and how they operate, and the advantages and disadvantages of each type of United Way.
The number one comment we hear every time we facilitate our New Directions Board and Staff Retreat is, “We should have had this conversation years ago.” Don’t wait, now is the time to get your board and staff together to answer the question “What is the focus of our United Way” so that you will be able to easily complete the sentence “Donating to United Way __________” for your United Way.