How to Survive Philanthropy Cloud

I’m worried about Philanthropy Cloud.

Not as it exists now – available exclusively to United Ways. I am worried about what will happen to United Ways when Philanthropy Cloud is made available to all nonprofits.

Here’s why: Philanthropy Cloud has the potential to put United Ways at odds with not just their vetted partner agencies and programs but every other charitable cause too. When Philanthropy Cloud is made available to all nonprofits, the easy and exclusive access to workplaces that United Ways once enjoyed will be eradicated, and fundraising will be every organization for itself.

When Philanthropy Cloud is adopted by workplace campaigns and the platform is open to nonprofits other than United Way and its partner agencies, the Philanthropy Cloud platform will have commandeered the traditional benefits of giving through United Way. When Philanthropy Cloud is open to all nonprofits, United Way will no longer be the easiest way for employees to donate to a wide variety of local nonprofit organizations – with just a few clicks of the button, Philanthropy Cloud will allow employees to give to whichever organizations or causes they choose. When workplaces adopt Philanthropy Cloud, United Way will no longer be the only way to ensure donations go to worthy organizations – with its integration with GuideStar, Philanthropy Cloud will put the power to vet nonprofits at donors’ fingertips.

If United Ways are no longer the easiest way to give to many worthy causes or the easiest way to ensure donations go to worthy organizations, how will United Ways be able to sell themselves?

The conversation about the benefits of giving to United Way will have to fully shift away from the process of giving to United Way to the outcomes of giving to United Way. United Ways utilizing Philanthropy Cloud will need to clearly articulate their relevance in terms of the good they do in their communities.

However, this brings us to another challenge.

The current reality is that when many United Ways report results, they’re reporting the outcomes of partner programs – not their own work. Any remotely astute donor recognizes that all the summer meals or after-school programs or mental health interventions their United Way references in an annual report are really the result of another agency’s work. With increasing awareness of overhead, many donors are left wondering why they wouldn’t make their donations directly to the organizations “actually doing the work.”

Of course, no United Way is going to stop providing funds to partner programs and start only providing direct services. So, the question becomes: How can United Ways that lack their own unique programming restructure their relationships with their partner programs and agencies in order to have their own results?

For many United Ways, the solution will be fully and truly implementing community impact.

Since 2003, United Ways throughout the system have been adopting and experimenting with community impact. The central tenants of community impact are clear and familiar, and adopting community impact allows the focus on United Ways’ work to shift from the funding United Ways provide local programs to the work United Ways do to develop and implement impact strategies in partnership with others. Convening and guiding collaboration and partnerships to identify new solutions is a result that resonates with donors. Donors like knowing that their donations fund innovative partnerships that produce impactful results.

While implementing community impact can be a significant departure from what some United Ways are currently doing and therefore require a significant investment of effort by staff and board members to reset the priorities of their United Way, I can see no other downsides.

Transitioning to community impact allows United Ways to secure more grants, more deeply impact their community, and – most importantly in the world of Philanthropy Cloud – help United Ways ensure their long-term relevance by giving them their own results to sell.

To survive when Philanthropy Cloud is available to all nonprofits, United Ways will need to strengthen the products they have to sell. Although this will certainly be challenging for many United Ways, stronger products will mean making investments more strategically and will therefore mean greater local impact.  

For all my worries about Philanthropy Cloud, I think the looming challenges of an open Philanthropy Cloud platform will ultimately lead to the start of a more impactful and relevant chapter for United Ways.