Our March Quote of the Month comes from educator and journalist Helen Keller:

“Worse than being blind would be to be able to see but not have any vision.” – Helen Keller

Every United Way can clearly see what they want to do, but not every United Way has vision. A fundraising-focused United Way raises money for their partner agencies or to fund programs, and their vision is achieving their campaign goal. In recent years, as workplace campaigns have become more challenging, some fundraising-focused United Ways have stopped publicizing their campaign goals, making their vision invisible. Issue-focused United Ways address a single issue in their community, such as high school graduation or homelessness. The vision at issue-focused United Ways is achieving their bold goal – halting hunger, reducing poverty, or all children entering kindergarten ready to learn as examples. A bold goal is a crystal-clear vision that anyone in the community can understand and appreciate. Whether your United Way is fundraising-focused or issue-focused, seeing what you do is not enough – you must have vision to engage your community and donors. If you have a quote you would like to share for our Quote of the Month, please let me know at gary@perspectives4uw.com