You Will Not Believe What My United Way Said – TMI!

One of the most common laments I hear from United Ways is that no one understands what they do. In order to explain what they do, United Ways tend to communicate a lot of information. Every webpage, campaign brochure, annual report, and newsletter is stuffed to overflowing with information, overwhelming the reader who is short on time and attention.

Too Much Information

According to Merriam-Webster, TMI is an abbreviation for “too much information.” We have all experienced a situation with a friend or relative who shared far too much personal information than we wanted or needed to know about their lives and thought TMI! But TMI doesn’t just come from friends and relatives, there are also plenty of United Ways who share TMI.

If your United Way wants to successfully communicate what you do, then it is absolutely essential that you eliminate TMI. So, what exactly qualifies as TMI? All of the information you communicate about your United Way’s processes – workplace campaigns, volunteering opportunities, allocations, etc. – is TMI.

For example, how many employers held a workplace campaign and how many people gave to United Way are all part of your campaign/fundraising process which means sharing this information is TMI. This would be the same as if Goodwill told you how many stores they have and how many people were customers of their stores, which is TMI. How many people volunteered on your allocation panels and how many hours they spent are all part of your allocations process which means sharing this information is TMI. This would be the same as if the W.K. Kellogg Foundation told you how many people evaluated grants and how many hours they spent evaluating grants, which is TMI.

A Laundry List of TMI

All of the items listed below are too much information (please don’t consider this to be a definitive list, I am sure we omitted plenty of information that would qualify as TMI).

Workplace Campaigns/Fundraising

  • Campaign goal

  • Number of employers holding a workplace campaign

  • Number of donors

  • Average donation amount

  • Number of campaign volunteers

Volunteering Opportunities

  • Number of people who volunteered

  • Total hours volunteered

  • The financial value of volunteer hours

  • Number of organizations where people volunteered

Allocations

  • Number of allocation panels or committees

  • Number of allocation volunteers

  • Hours volunteers spent on allocation process

  • Number of grant requests processed

Administrative Costs

  • Administrative/overhead cost percentage

  • Average administrative/overhead cost for a nonprofit organization

Your donors and community members do NOT need to know this information. This information will NOT influence them to give to United Way, it will NOT increase their contribution to United Way, it will NOT encourage them to volunteer, and most importantly it will NOT increase their understanding of your United Way.

I am sure that some of you are saying “No, we need to communicate this information because people ask us about it all the time.” Based on our research with local United Way donors and community members, very few people actually care about any of this information. For example, on average only 4% of United Way donors took the time to research your administrative costs. Similarly, on average no more than 15% of donors care about your campaign goal, and even then, it doesn’t impact the amount they give in the slightest.

Results Not Processes

If communicating about your processes is TMI, then what should you communicate? Your results.

Your donors and community want and need to hear the results of contributing to your United Way. They want to know how many families are no longer homeless, the number of children who entered kindergarten ready to learn, or how many individuals have been lifted out of poverty. They want to know what their contribution has accomplished.

The best results are always lives changed. You should talk about how people’s lives have changed through stories and share the number of people whose lives have changed. 

Issue Focused United Ways do this every day. They focus on addressing an issue like poverty, homelessness, graduation rate, or kindergarten readiness, and they lead and convene the community to make a measurable change on that issue. They measure success 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.

If your United Way struggles to find results, you may want to consider adopting an issue focus. You can learn more about how an issue focus can help your United Way to raise more money, diversify your resources, simplify your message, and achieve meaningful results by watching our free United Way Survival Guide video.

Process Information is TMI

There is no benefit to sharing process information with your donors and community. It does not motivate them to give or volunteer. In fact, communicating process information only makes it harder for donors and community members to understand what you do because they will need to wade through the sea of process information. You will increase understanding of what your United Way does when you share your results.  

Don’t be one of those United Ways that shares everything about their processes – TMI!

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