Stop Living in the Past
Does Your United Way Live in the Past?
United Ways talk about last year a lot. They talk about their funded partners, meaning those organizations and programs that received funding last year. They talk about the hundreds of hours volunteers dedicated to the allocation process last year. They talk about how many donors and companies supported the campaign last year. They talk about how many people were helped by funded programs last year.
In fact, a lot of United Way communication is in the past tense using words like invested, supported, referred, established, connected, served, distributed, improved, developed, engaged, empowered, received, and informed. Would you believe that all of these words come from just one United Way’s campaign brochure?
Guess Who Doesn’t Live in the Past? Your Donors!
If you look at other charitable organizations, you will see that they do not live in the past. When you visit the Habitat for Humanity website, it says “Every donation helps a family build a safe and affordable home.” They are not asking you to give to Habitat for Humanity because they built thousands of houses last year. They are asking you to give because you want to help build houses for families.
You will see the same when you look at the American Red Cross website. They want you to “donate to support home fire relief – your gift can help the Red Cross reduce death and injury from home fire” or “Volunteers are needed now more than ever – help families that have lost nearly everything in a disaster.” They are asking you to give for the future, not for the thousands of families they helped last year.
Think about the charitable organizations you support. Did you support them because of what they told you they did last year? Probably not.
Donors Want to Change Lives in Their Community
Your donors want to know that when they give to United Way, this is what will happen tomorrow, not what happened last year. You need to be able to paint a picture of how people will be helped due to their contribution this year. For example, “With your support, Camp iRock will help over 400 at-risk children improve their reading skills and read at grade level.” If you are like me, even though you may never have been to Camp iRock, you can still picture lots of smiling young children at a summer camp improving their reading skills.
When you ask a donor to support something that will happen in the future, you are implying that if they don’t give, this may not happen. In other words, the donor’s contribution is essential for making this important work happen. There is no urgency to supporting something that happened last year because it has already happened. Indeed, plenty of good may have happened last year, but it happened whether or not you choose to give this year.
The Future is Issue Focused
The traditional United Way business model is rooted in the past – ask donors to give money and then decide how to allocate it.
Future thinking starts with deciding what you want your donors to support. The Issue Focused Business Model starts with your United Way choosing an issue, like poverty, homelessness, graduation rate, or kindergarten readiness, and then you lead and convene your community to make a measurable change on that issue.
Issue Focused United Ways are future-focused because they are asking donors to give to reduce poverty or donate to end homelessness. When a donor gives to an Issue Focused United Way, they have a clear understanding what their contribution will accomplish now and in the future. They can see a clear picture of how their contribution will lift families out of poverty, provide housing for homeless people, help students graduate from high school, or prepare children for kindergarten.
Leave the Past Behind
Does your United Way live in the past? Your donors don’t live in the past and you don’t need to either.