Three New Year’s Resolutions Your United Way Should Keep
Tis the season! It’s that time of year again when, with ample confidence and overwhelming exuberance, we prepare our New Year’s resolutions. As you contemplate your personal New Year’s resolutions for 2019, there is no reason not to prepare a New Year’s resolution or three for your United Way as well. In the spirit of holiday giving and sharing, we have three resolutions that your United Way should keep.
1. Stop Using Jargon. Why put it off any longer? You know jargon is bad for you, your donors, your community, and your United Way. Make 2019 the year you put an end to using words and phrases that confuse, bemuse, and bewilder anyone outside of your office walls. United Ways are so effusive in their use of jargon that we had a jargon contest in 2016 just to see if United Way staff could tell “real” United Way jargon from “computer generated” United Way jargon.
While words like “allocations process,” “collective impact,” and “core service investments” may cause excitement that borders on hysteria among your staff, your community and donors have no idea what these words mean. Their eyes glaze over at the sound of “fund distribution,” “investment products,” and “key influence sectors.” Using these words outside of the office only serves to push donors and the community further away. You can – and must – tell your United Way story without jargon.
In 2019, make it your United Way’s New Year’s resolution to stop using jargon outside the office. Appoint someone to be your office “Jargon-Buster” responsible for ensuring that your campaign brochures, emails, website, and other communication materials are jargon-free.
2. Help Your Donors Succeed. You would hardly think United Ways need this resolution, until you realize that many United Ways go out of their way to make it difficult for their donors to succeed. When donors succeed, they feel like they have made their community a better place.
Do donors support your United Way because of how much money it raises? No, so examples like thermometers don’t help donors succeed and have got to go.
Instead, show donors how they make a difference by contributing to United Way. Donors will succeed when United Ways share the issue they address, the actions they are taking to address the issue, and the results they are achieving.
When you allow donors to designate their contribution, what does that mean for United Way? It means that other nonprofit organizations are doing a better job at making your donors successful.
Our research has found that there are donors in every community who designate but would consider supporting United Way instead if they understood what United Way accomplishes. Focus the message of your United Way so that donors will successfully recognize the opportunities to make a difference in your community.
In 2019, examine everything your United Way does to make sure it helps your donors succeed. Stop doing what doesn’t help donors succeed and start doing what donors need to succeed. After a year of helping your donors succeed, we can talk about more mundane resolutions like losing weight.
3. Understand Why Your United Way Exists. The eternal, existential question of why your United Way exists is a question you must be able to answer to know when you are successful.
Sadly, most United Way boards cannot tell you why their United Way exists or the purpose of their United Way. Well, let me refine that a little. If you ask a board of 20 people why United Way exists, you are likely to get 20 different answers. On a single board, it is not uncommon for board members to offer a variety of reasons for why their United Way exists, including: to help people, to raise money for local organizations, to provide donors a single place to make their charitable contribution, to make sure local nonprofits are accountable and effective, to understand and address the community’s needs, to help families, to end homelessness, to halt hunger. The list of purposes board members might identify goes on endlessly.
If boards of directors express such a diversity of belief as to why their United Way exists, is it any surprise when donors or the community do not know what their local United Way does? The reason your United Way exists could be entirely different from the United Way in the next county, which makes it even more important to be able to clearly articulate your answer. For your United Way to succeed, your board must have a clear consensus as to why your United Way exists.
Make understanding why your United Way exists one of your resolutions for 2019. What you will find, once your board agrees on why your United Way exists, is an incredible focus in your work. Your board will be able to go out and talk with one voice about why people should give, advocate, and volunteer at your United Way. Your staff will understand what the board values and expects United Way to accomplish. Your donors will support United Way knowing what their contribution will be enabling. Your community will understand how United Way fits into the larger fabric of the nonprofit and social service organizations in your area.
Those are the three resolutions that we think your United Way should keep in 2019. However, we know that sticking to resolutions isn’t always easy, so our next blog post will share with you our guide for staying resolute in your resolutions.
We wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Best wishes for a successful and rewarding 2019! Now, go get a head start on those resolutions!
