In our 30 years of experience surveying United Way donors, we have seen basically everything. Recently, I was thinking back to the biggest lessons we have learned from donor surveys and landed on these three:

• Donors are not motivated to give by the campaign goal. The amount United Way wants to raise is irrelevant to most donors. On average, less than 20 percent of donors want to know about the campaign goal.

• Donors are not motivated to give because they trust United Way. Admittedly, donors trust United Way, but when you ask them why they give to United Way, less than 15 percent of donors say it is because they trust United Way. As you might expect, nearly all of the donors that mention trust as a reason for giving are retirement age or older – not the younger generation.

• Donors are not motivated to give by the funded partner agencies. There are a few donors who may not give because they think United Way funds or does not fund a certain partner agency, but donors do not give because of a list of partner agencies. Approximately 85 percent of donors are unable to name even three funded partner agencies. Think about it this way – Ford does not sell cars by talking about their suppliers like Goodyear, Valeo Electric, NHK Spring, Summit Plastics, or Flextronic Automotive.

What motivates donors to give more than anything else is knowing the impact of their contribution. They want to know how their community will be a better place because they gave to United Way. They want to know who will be helped by their contribution. They want to know how their contribution made a difference.

Quite simply, they want to know how their contribution will change lives. If you want people to donate to your United Way, you must provide them with opportunities to change lives. Here are three great opportunities for donors to change lives by supporting your United Way:

Impacting an Issue

“When you give to United Way, you are helping end homelessness by providing 100 families permanent housing.” From this one sentence, the donor knows that 100 families’ lives will be changed forever because they will no longer be homeless.

Of all the things a donor wants to know about United Way, the issue you are impacting is #1. Nothing is more important than sharing your issue because your donors need to know the issue your United Way addresses and how they are impacting that issue. You can show the donor how their contribution changed lives by telling the story of a family who now has a permanent home and what that has meant to them.

Our donor research has found that the top two reasons people do not give to United Way is that they were not asked, and they care more about impacting other issues. I believe that most United Way donors have no idea what issues their United Way addresses, and if they knew what issues their United Way addresses, they would likely support their United Way.

For more information about how focusing on an issue will transform your United Way, check out our free webinar United Way Survival Guide: How to Keep Your United Way From Dying.

Initiative Investment

If your United Way has an initiative like Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library or VITA, you have a great donor magnet. When you can say “Your contribution of $5 a week will help eight children be ready for kindergarten by providing them with a book every month from Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library” you give donors a clear message of how they can change lives through United Way. Show a picture of a child reading their book and a quote from their parent and the donor can see how their contribution changed lives.

Many United Ways pass-through funding to local partner agencies, who use the funding to operate their programs. Telling a donor that their contribution will go to fund a partner agency’s programs is like a blinking arrow encouraging the donor to give directly to the partner agency. Donor research has found that one of the primary reasons donors designate their contribution to a local nonprofit is because they understand what that organization will do with the money, while they do not understand what United Way would do with the money. For more information about why donors designate and how to get donors to give to your United Way directly, check out our recent webinar Reduce Designations: How to Get Your Donors to Give to You.

You will only want to ask donors to invest in initiatives your United Way operates like Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library or VITA. When you are talking about your initiatives, be sure to focus on the results of the initiatives – not the processes. Donors do not want or need to know how many volunteers are part of your VITA program, or the number of hours the volunteers worked. Donors need to know how their contribution will change lives by supporting the program. Note that the example statement does not say that the goal of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is providing 500 children books, but rather that the donor can change the lives of eight children by supporting Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. 

Invited to Volunteer

Donors can donate more than just their dollars, they can donate their time. The number one way to attract the younger generation to your United Way is by providing them an opportunity to volunteer to change lives. When you provide donors with a hands-on way to help such as joining United Way to collect food to help feed over 200 hungry families in our community, they become invested in United Way and your work. A short video of how the food will help families in your community to become food secure will show donors how their contribution changes lives.

Often United Ways pass-through volunteers to local partner agencies. If your United Way recruits volunteers and you send them all to a local nonprofit organization to volunteer, they will develop a relationship with the local nonprofit – not your United Way. If you invite people to volunteer, you must provide a volunteering opportunity for your United Way and not pass them through to other organizations. Even a food drive can be done for United Way, and after the food drive is completed the food can be delivered to local food pantries for distribution.

Don’t just invite the younger generation to volunteer, be sure to invite your donors who are supporting you financially too. Our research has found that over one-third of all United Way donors would be interested in volunteering for United Way to impact a local issue. Inviting donors to volunteer allows them to get closer to the work and build a deeper and more direct connection to changing lives in their community.

If you are interested in learning how to attract younger donors, be sure to join us for our upcoming webinar The Next Generation Wants to Give, Get Them to Give to You on May 12, 2021. 

Opportunities to Change Lives

Think about the charities you support financially and/or through volunteering. For each of those charities, I bet you know exactly how they change lives. The only way your United Way can compete successfully with other charities is to show how contributing to United Way changes lives.