Quote of the Month: October 2018
After speaking to United Ways at conferences for many years, people have attributed several quotes to me. This month’s quote comes from yours truly:
“Helping people is easy. Change is hard.” – Gary Goscenski, Issue-Focused Consultant, Perspectives
When a United Way provides funding for a program it helps people. For example, 120 local families received food from a local food pantry because United Way provided funding to the food pantry. It is relatively easy for United Way to say they helped these families by making an investment in their program.
It is hard to change things. The challenge of change comes when you ask the question: “How do we change things so that these 120 families will not need food from the local food pantry next month?”
Many United Ways measure success by how many people received help. Very few United Ways measure success by how many people no longer need help.
What is success for your United Way – helping or changing?
Adopting an issue focus is all about achieving change – fewer people in poverty, more students graduate from high school, fewer people are homeless, etc. Change is hard, but United Ways that have adopted an issue focus make change in their communities every day. Check out the Issue Focus Model on our website and see how your United Way can make change. One of the most powerful aspects of the Issue Focus Model is that it not only changes your community, but it makes your United Way relevant, sustainable, and impactful.
If you have a quote you would like to share for our Quote of the Month, please let me know at gary@perspectives4uw.com
Blog Survey Update
On another note: We want to thank everyone who took the time to complete our blog survey. We sincerely appreciate your comments and suggestions, and you will see us incorporating your comments and suggestions into future blog posts.
Congratulations to Jimmy Hill, President and CEO, River Region United Way (Montgomery, AL), who completed our blog survey and was randomly selected to receive a free webinar from Perspectives for his United Way!