They Did Good Stuff I Guess

Recently, I was catching up with a long-time friend who I’ve known since high school and the topic of United Way came up. I had remembered that when we were in high school, she was part of our local Student United group. Back in those days I never really paid much attention to what she said about Student United because I had no clue what United Way was.

Now of course, I work with United Ways. Which made me curious what my friend remembered about her time with Student United and her feelings around United Way. So, I asked one simple question, “What did the United Way you volunteered with do?”

A simple question, especially for a woman who had spent a couple of years in a United Way affinity group. That being said, I don’t think you will be shocked by what her answer was. “I have no idea. They did good stuff I guess.” It will also come as no surprise that my friend does not support United Way now that she is an adult.

So, how did this happen? How could a woman who as a teen spent two years volunteering with Student United not know what she contributed towards? The answer: United Way wasn’t communicating their impact to her.

Never was my friend told what the larger impact of her volunteering was. She wasn’t made aware of the importance of the work being done. Rather, all she saw were volunteer opportunities with local partner agencies with no clear goal that she was working towards. Is it any wonder she chose to focus her energies on other charities and non-profits where the impact was clear?

United Ways MUST communicate impact every time they interact with a donor or volunteer. You will never get new donors, or get your current donors to increase their donation, if they don’t know what it is United Way does.

Often United Ways lose themselves amongst the talk of partner agencies. United Ways MUST stop being hesitant to accept the recognition they deserve. United Way does so much work in the community: funding partners, coordinating agencies, running their own programs, or even rallying volunteers. Yet it seems as if United Ways only talk about impact through the lens of partner agencies. And while of course you want to give credit where credit is due, you must remember that United Way is due some of that credit.

Communicating impact can be hard. What do donors want to know about your impact and how do you say it in a clear and convincing way? In our upcoming webinar How to Communicate Your Impact: What to Say and How to Say It we will discuss all of this and more. Join us on December 8, 2021 at 2 p.m. ET for this 90-minute webinar.

You may wonder if my friend is forever a lost United Way donor. And honestly, I don’t know. But it doesn’t need to be that way. Perhaps one day a United Way will come to her with a clear issue, a clear goal, and clear impact towards that goal and she will finally understand the importance of United Way. But for now, she remains a lost donor.