Rarely a day goes by without a United Way executive telling me they are overworked and overwhelmed. And more often than not, these presidents and executive directors will go on to say this feeling extends to their entire staff.

You might think this is a new problem, perhaps a result of COVID-19 or working from home, but I assure you being overworked and overwhelmed is not a new problem for United Ways.

NOT A NEW PROBLEM

About a year and a half ago, prior to the time of COVID-19, I had the opportunity to work with a small United Way with a staff of three. As we started working together, they would tell me that they were overworked and overwhelmed all the time. You could hear the stress in their voices and in their energy level over the phone. The problem was so bad, they wanted me to help their board understand that they might need another staff member.

I figured if they were to have any chance of convincing their board another staff member was needed, or would be a good investment, it would be important for the board to understand all they were doing. I asked them to prepare a list of their activities, everything they did over the course of a year at their United Way as well as time spent serving on committees for other community organizations. I was expecting it to be a long list, but I was stunned when it was 10 pages. Yes, the three staff members at this United Way needed a 10-page, single-spaced Word file to list all that they did every year.

I am absolutely convinced this is not an isolated situation. I am betting I could ask many of you to create the same list and it would also be way too many pages. With COVID-19, many of your United Ways could probably add another page or two to your list of new things you have started in just the past year.

But why are United Ways so overworked and feeling to overwhelmed? There are actually three primary reasons that I have noticed: beating a dead horse, boiling a frog, and flying blind.

BEATING A DEAD HORSE

We all know the idiom about the dead horse and how the best strategy when you find yourself riding a dead horse is to dismount. Sarah wrote a wonderful blog post about workplace campaigns being dead horses in 2019. Many United Ways find themselves overworked and overwhelmed trying to raise the same amount of money from workplace campaigns even though workplace campaigns have been declining for years. Sure, you can still raise money using workplace campaigns, but it is harder now than it has ever been before. This is demoralizing to staff who after being overworked and overwhelmed by campaign this year, find that they raised even less money than the year before.

BOILING A FROG

We all know the story about a frog being put in a pot of water on the stove and as the temperature slowly rises the water will eventually boil, with the doomed frog unaware until it is too late. How often does your United Way get asked to do something for your community – organize a drive, operate a program, hold meetings, study an issue, provide services, serve on a committee, etc.? And when you consider these requests one at a time, it is easy for you to say that we can do this, or that we must do this because no one else can or will. But these little requests add up. Think back to the 10-page listing of activities the United Way with three staff members is doing. It didn’t happen overnight. That list exists because month after month for years they kept adding one little thing at a time. I call this problem the “plus one syndrome” where you continue to do everything you have always done and keep adding one more thing to it.

FLYING BLIND

I hear that today’s planes can basically fly themselves for the most part, but you can imagine back in the day that flying blind would not be a safe thing to do. For United Ways, flying blind basically means you have so many priorities and are going in so many directions that you really don’t know where you are headed. United Ways become overworked and overwhelmed when it is not clear what direction they are headed or when that direction changes daily or even hourly. We all know how good it feels to finish a project, whether you are sewing a dress, painting a room, building a deck, or putting together a puzzle. When you don’t have that sense of completion or closure for dozens of projects at the same time, you become discouraged, making your feelings of being overworked and overwhelmed that much stronger.

THE ANSWER

The one-word answer to all of these challenges is “NO.” At an organizational level and at a personal level, you must learn how to say “NO.”

No, you can’t raise the money you want or need to raise solely from workplace campaigns. You don’t need to stop doing workplace campaigns, but you must say “NO” we cannot raise the same amount we used to raise just from workplace campaigns. The solution is not more workplace campaigns but diversifying your resources – check out our webinar “Yes, You Can – Raising Money Outside of the Workplace.” You and your United Way will not be overwhelmed and overworked when you diversify your resources.

No, you will not take on everything you or your United Way is asked to do. For example, did you really need to start that COVID-19 relief fund? I know of several United Ways that realized they did not need to be the one operating their community’s COVID-19 fund, that there were other organizations that could do the job. Could they have done it? Yes. Did they need to do it? No. Start saying “NO” to new projects unless you can stop doing something else to free up the time and resources. This needs to happen at a staff level too. If your United Way president or executive director comes to you and says “We need to start doing . . .” this is precisely the time for the “NO” conversation. I don’t want to get you fired but there needs to be a conversation about what you will stop doing if you are already overworked and overwhelmed. As one United Way executive said to me earlier this week “Just say no.” When you just say “NO” to additional activities or responsibilities, you lighten your load and allow yourself the time you need to complete your activities and responsibilities.

No, going in many directions does not mean you are responsive to all of your community’s needs. When you have too many goals as a United Way or as a staff person, that is the same as having no goals at all. Trying to be everything to everyone is the definition of overworked and overwhelmed. Your United Way must establish a clear purpose and direction – which you can do by adopting an issue focus. Watch our free webinar “United Way Survival Guide: How to Keep Your United Way from Dying” and we’ll show you exactly how an issue focus eliminates the daunting task of tackling every issue under the sun and more effectively using your time to make measurable and lasting change in your community.

START SAYING NO TODAY

Please start saying “NO.” The future of your United Way depends on it. Your career depends on it. Your United Way needs you and if you are overworked and overwhelmed it becomes impossible for you to accomplish what you need to do. Start with figuring out what causes you and your co-workers to be overworked and overwhelmed such as workplace campaigns, adding more activities, and/or a lack of priorities and direction. Then take the time to talk about solutions and what to say “NO” to.

Someone once said that being strategic is knowing what you will say “NO” to. If you have put off strategic planning the time is now. We can help your United Way to make these tough decisions and decide what to say “NO” to with our proven strategic planning process.

There are no excuses. If you don’t want to be overworked and overwhelmed, you need to start saying “NO” now.