Manifesto
It’s a painful but undeniable truth - United Ways are dying.
This hasn’t been a quick death either. United Ways have been experiencing the symptoms for decades. Every year, workplace campaigns seem to go down a little further and donors continue to disappear. Fewer donors result in fewer dollars, leaving United Ways little choice but to slash funding to partner agencies. Each year, more United Ways face the threat of extinction as mergers and closures become their only options. And the question United Ways are left with is “Why are United Ways dying?”
The answers are obvious, but they can be hard to accept.
United Ways are no longer relevant. Back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, United Ways made perfect sense and fulfilled a purpose: to vet local charities and make sure donor’s dollars were being spent wisely. But that is something donors no longer need you to do. United Way has been replaced by Guidestar, Charity Navigator, and similar organizations that hold nonprofits accountable. In this internet age, donors can research and evaluate charities at their fingertips, without having to give United Way a single dollar.
On top of no longer needing you to vet local charities, donors have realized they don’t need you to direct their dollars for them either. Giving is as easy as Googling the charity they want to support and entering their credit card number. Donors can support all the charities they want directly, without having money taken out to fund the overhead of an organization that they believe just distributes money. They no longer need the pass-through organization you once were. That time has come and gone.
Then there is the lack of results. Because United Ways are a pass-through organization, United Ways rarely have results of their own to share with the community. When all your donors see are the results of partner agencies, they question why they should give to you instead of giving directly to the highlighted nonprofits. Sharing partner agency’s results is essentially a blinking arrow guiding your donors to give directly to those programs.
However, the most significant problem facing your United Way is that your donors have no idea what you do. When United Ways do not have their own results, it is next to impossible to explain how they are making any sort of meaningful change. Donors know what Habitat for Humanity does. They know what Salvation Army does. So, why are you shocked that your donors choose to donate directly to them? Your donors have moved to the proverbial greener pastures of organizations where they understand the work and what their contribution will accomplish.
Despite all of this, United Ways have refused to acknowledge that their spot has been taken. Rather than changing, United Ways have dug in their heels and tried even harder to make the old ways work again. And while this is a valiant effort, if you want your United Way to survive another 50 years, you need a new plan. Doing things the way you always have will not work any longer. You must find a new way to make your United Way relevant, change community perception that you are only a pass-through organization, and bring back your lost donors.
It’s time for United Ways to make a change.
To do that, your United Way must become issue focused. This means picking an issue or problem in your community that you are passionate about and commit to making meaningful change in that area. Broad categories like education, income, health, and basic needs make it easier for United Ways to group programs but having broad categories does not inspire donors. Donors want to give and volunteer to impact a specific issue that plagues their community such as poverty, hunger, homelessness, illiteracy, etc. You must choose an issue around which you can unite your donors and community to create change.
Once you select your issue, you will need to find the bold goal you want to work towards. If you want donors to support your United Way, then your bold goal must be the same as your donors’ goal – changing the lives of those impacted by your issue. You must stop talking about how much money you want to raise from campaign because this was never what your donors wanted to support. Your bold goal must measure your success by how many people are no longer impacted by your issue – no longer living in poverty, no longer unable to read, or no longer homeless.
The next change you must make to become sustainable is diversifying your revenue. You can no longer depend on workplace campaigns to make up the bulk of your revenue. With an issue focus and a bold goal of changing lives, your United Way will finally be able to plug the holes left by declining workplace campaigns with government and foundation grants, corporate sponsorship of programs, and affinity groups that actually raise money and make impactful change.
Organizations in your community need a convener to give them direction when it comes to making impact on a specific issue. Your United Way is uniquely positioned to be a convener, pulling both funded and non-funded programs together, to address your issue and achieve your bold goal. You can provide the leadership necessary to bring services together in a way that local organizations never would have been able to on their own. With an issue focus you will be the hub that unites your donors, community members, workplaces, and organizations to change lives.
Becoming issue focused works. Ask any United Way that has become issue focused and they will tell you bluntly: this is the way you become relevant again. By focusing on an issue, they have created change that is clear and inspiring to their donors and community members. These United Ways have diversified their revenue far beyond their workplace campaigns, providing them with stability during uncertain times. They have been able to convene donors, community members, workplaces, and organizations around their issue, providing a clear road map of how everyone can work together to make change, rather than going it alone. These United Ways are thriving because they saw the writing on the wall and changed to become what their community needs and what their donors will support.
Times are tough for United Ways. But there is some good news. You are not dead yet and there is still time to save yourself. Whether or not your United Way will change is not the question you need to answer. The question you need to answer is who will be making that choice? Will you stand by and let plummeting workplace campaigns and rapidly disappearing donors make the decision for you? Because you will not like that change. Or will you take this opportunity to make the decision yourself?