One of the basic truths about charitable giving is that people give for emotional reasons, not necessarily rational reasons. You could make a case for why people should give to reduce poverty because thousands of people are poor, but unless you can connect with a donor on an emotional level, you are never going to get them to give.

Are United Ways Emotional?

A lot of United Ways have a hard time connecting with donors emotionally. When a United Way collects money and allocates it to partner agencies, it is a very transactional relationship – you give to United Way and United Way will allocate your contribution. The emotion in this transaction, if there is any emotion, is always connected to the partner agency or funded program and not United Way. Think about it this way, if you buy a ticket through Ticketmaster, you may be very excited to see the concert or sporting event, but you have no emotion about your transaction with Ticketmaster. Allocating money to partner agencies is devoid of emotion.

United Ways spend a lot of time talking about their processes and exactly how they do what they do. What do community impact, collective impact, allocation panels, investment committees, outcome measurement, and needs assessment have in common? These are all very rational processes which do not connect with donors in an emotional way. When you think about buying a car, you may be aware of the crash testing process, but you certainly don’t get emotional about crash testing. Processes are devoid of emotion.

For several months a year, if not year-round, United Ways often focus on publicizing a campaign goal. Based on our donor research, donors do not find a campaign goal to be emotional or motivating in the slightest. The rational campaign goal does not motivate existing donors to give more money, in fact most donors (over 80%) do not care about the campaign goal at all. Campaign goals do not attract new donors, because they are purely a number. Campaign goals are devoid of emotion.

Talking about your United Way’s allocations, your United Way’s processes, and your United Way’s campaign goal will never reach donors emotionally.

Show Donors How They Can Impact Their Cause Through Your United Way

If you want to reach a donor emotionally, then you need to make it all about the donor, not about your United Way. Make this your mantra: We will show donors how they can impact their cause through United Way.

There are four elements to this mantra that are essential for reaching donors emotionally:

• Show donors

• How they can impact

• Their cause

• Through United Way

Let’s start with THEIR CAUSE. What motivates donors to give is the ability for them to impact their cause. A donor will only give to United Way if they know that United Way is impacting their cause. This means your United Way must communicate the issue or cause you are addressing. Our research is crystal clear on this, United Way donors need to know what issue you are addressing and emotionally connect to that issue.

We also know from our research that categories like education, income, and health are not good enough. Donors struggle to understand what categories like education, income, and health really mean. Donors are not emotional about “income,” they are emotional about reducing poverty or ending homelessness. Donors are passionate about causes and issues, not categories.

Issue focused United Ways work on impacting one issue, so it is super easy for donors to understand their issue or cause. If your United Way does not focus on addressing a specific issue, you are missing out on donors because they will not see your United Way as addressing their cause.

In order to show donors HOW THEY CAN IMPACT their cause, you need to demonstrate how a donor’s contribution changes lives. In a time when people don’t trust organizations and institutions the way they used to, you need to prove your United Way is impacting their issue. One of the best ways to demonstrate this is to share success stories of how lives have been changed. For example, you could share the story of a family who now has permanent housing (if you were addressing the issue of homelessness), or a single mother who was able to finish her GED and get a job that supports her family (if you were addressing the issue of poverty).

If your United Way is operating or leading your own program, you can talk about how your program changes lives. Be sure to use language like “With your support of United Way, Bobby was able to attend Camp iRock and is now reading at grade level.” United Way of Pickens County (Easley, SC) runs Camp iRock and they clearly show how donors can impact their cause. Remember, this is all about the donor, not your United Way.

The best way to reach donors emotionally is to SHOW DONORS your issue or cause and how they can impact their cause. Showing donors can be done in writing, pictures, videos, social media. Start with good stories and information about the prevalence and significance of your issue or cause. For example, a picture of a young boy with the headline “Eddie is just one of over 10,000 children in our county who live in poverty” or a video of a woman who talks about how homeless does not mean hopeless.

Follow-up with success stories of families and people whose lives have been changed. Combine pictures or videos with stories to engage donors emotionally. Let donors see people whose lives have been changed and read or hear their stories of success.

Quality always beats quantity. You do not need to tell a lot of stories about a lot of issues, a few good stories about one issue is more than enough. You need just enough stories to allow donors to feel empathy for people who are impacted by the issue.

Finally, you need to show donors how giving THROUGH UNITED WAY will allow them to impact their cause. Once a donor knows that your United Way is impacting an issue they care about, you need to make it clear that giving through United Way is how they can impact that issue. Talking about partner agencies or funded programs only builds an emotional connection with those partner agencies or funded programs – not United Way.

Issue focused United Ways find it easy to form that emotional connection with donors because they can say things like “Donating to United Way helps end homelessness in our community,” or “Supporting United Way helps all children enter kindergarten ready to learn.” United Ways should be the one-stop place a donor can give to reduce poverty, end homelessness, halt hunger, or change lives.

Besides giving, you should also be inviting people to volunteer and/or advocate to change lives through United Way. Be sure to offer volunteering opportunities that address your issue or cause at your United Way, rather than passing volunteers through to other charities, so that your volunteers build an emotional connection with your work.

Issue Focused United Ways are Emotional

A traditional United Way that raises money and allocates it to local partner agencies and funded programs will have a hard time connecting emotionally with donors. The future of your United Way depends on your ability to connect with donors emotionally so that they can impact their cause through your United Way. Issue focused United Ways do this everyday. If you are interested in the possibility of adopting an issue focus at your United Way, be sure to check out our United Way Survival Guide video.

Remember, people give for emotional reasons, not necessarily rational reasons so getting emotional with your donors is essential. Always remember to:

Show Donors How They Can Impact Their Cause Through Your United Way