Traditional Issue Focus Transformation

What is the Traditional Issue Focus Transformation (TIFT)?

TIFT is our full-service, comprehensive process for helping United Ways choose their issue, set their bold goal, and develop a three-year strategic plan for adopting an issue focus.

Our TIFT process begins with stakeholder research. Asking the right questions and involving all of your stakeholders – donors, community, campaigns, board, staff, and partner agencies – is the recipe for collecting the information essential to successfully transform your United Way to an issue focus.

Once you understand what your stakeholders value and are willing to support, we will help your board and staff select your issue, determine your bold goal, and identify internal measures of success.

Finally, we will help you create a strategic plan that will transform your United Way from where you are today to where you want to be three years from now. This involves carefully examining the different types of impact/investment, resource development, and marketing/engagement strategies used by successful issue focused United Ways. Then, we will help you select and plan your impact/investment, resource development, and marketing/engagement strategies that will transform your United Way, and how you will stop doing outdated activities that are no longer effective. Typically, TIFT takes six to nine months to complete.

Our Traditional Issue Focus Transformation services are for United Ways that have decided to become issue focused but have not yet identified their issue and bold goal and need to transform their resource development, impact/investment, and marketing/engagement work. If your United Way is already several years into your journey toward adopting an issue focus, then you will want to look at our Strategic Planning services.

Next Steps

Your future as a relevant, sustainable, and impactful United Way will be realized when you adopt an issue focus.

Contact us for more information about our Traditional Issue Focus Transformation process.

Here’s what our clients have to say about working with us:

Testimonials

“Thank you for a great day of thought-provoking conversation! I know I conveyed to you that I had high expectations for the day, and y’all exceeded them!”

- George McCanless, President & CEO of United Way of Central Georgia

"The process they use is so efficient that our board members were blown away by what we've been able to accomplish in a short amount of time. It's well worth the money to bring in the experts. Had I known about Perspectives before, I would have started this process sooner."

- Shane Orr, Executive Director of United Way of Muscatine

"We are thrilled with the ‘single issue’ focus on financial stability; we got there with help from Perspectives, a great consulting firm. They not only led our board through the entire strategic planning process, but their ongoing technical assistance has been extremely helpful with all our efforts." 

- Ken Toll, President/CEO of United Way of Jackson County

"You were so right! Focusing on the issue of early childhood education has resulted in raising more money from grants and campaigns, attracting new donors, and reduced designations. Now everyone knows what our United Way does in the community." 

- Julie Capaldi, President of United Way of Pickens County

"We know of no other consulting group with the breadth of knowledge and experience that Perspectives has in working with local United Ways."

- Bill Jackson, President & CPO of United Way of Erie County (retired)

"For years, our United Way wanted to move to an issue focus but struggled with how to get there as a one-person shop. The GIFT program was exactly what we needed – step-by-step instructions, samples, and ready guidance from the Perspectives team. We are now an issue-focused United Way with a solid strategic plan, and I absolutely would not have been able to manage this on my own. Perspectives’ GIFT program changed the trajectory of our work!"

- Julie Mallard, Executive Director of United Way of Delta County