This isn’t the first time I have examined trends facing United Ways. Unsurprisingly, three of the four trends I’ll share with you today are ones that I also examined back in 2020. Declining workplace campaigns, aging donors, and fewer donors are all trends you cannot ignore in 2023. The new trend to make the list is rampant staff turnover. Let’s take a look at each of these trends in more detail.

Declining Workplace Campaigns

The decline of workplace campaigns is well documented. In the past year, the number of workplace campaigns declined by 6.4%. In the past fifteen years, workplace campaigns have declined by over 61%. This is not a new trend and there is no indication it will improve. In fact, there are plenty of reasons it will only get worse. United Ways have no control over companies merging or closing, when organizations move management to another state, when employers choose to use a third-party processor, or even when companies decide to stop holding a campaign. The corporate environment has been changing for years and has been entirely reinvented due to COVID-19.

The Solution to Declining Workplace Campaigns

The solution to declining workplace campaigns is diversifying revenue sources by securing grants, sponsorships, and planned giving. Workplace campaigns should be a fraction of your United Way’s total resources – about 50% with the remainder coming from other sources like grants, sponsorships, and planned giving. This is nearly impossible if United Ways exist to raise money and pass it through to local partner agencies and programs.

Issue focused United Ways choose an issue, like poverty, homelessness, graduation rate, or kindergarten readiness, and they lead and convene the community to make a measurable change on that issue. Instead of a campaign goal, their success is measured by the number of lives changed, such as: the number of families no longer living in poverty, people who now have a home, students who graduated from high school, or children that are ready for kindergarten.

When a United Way is issue focused, people know exactly what their contribution will accomplish because an issue focused United Way only addresses one issue with an inspiring goal for success. Issue focused United Ways raise more money because they are able to attract additional resources like grants, sponsorships, and planned giving to address their issue.

The Issue Focus Business Model does not, however, fix workplace campaigns. As you have probably experienced first-hand, almost all the reasons workplace campaigns are declining are external factors that you cannot influence, control, or fix. What United Ways can and must fix is what they are selling, so that they are able to diversify their resources.

Aging Donors

We have conducted surveys of local United Way donors since the early 1990’s. Based on our research, in just the past 15 years, from 2008 to now, the average age of a United Way donor has increased from 45 years old to over 55 years old. When we do the math, the average United Way loses approximately 4% of their donors each and every year due to retirement alone. Put another way, your United Way will likely lose about half of your current donors to retirement by the year 2035. At the other end of the spectrum, our research has found that less than 10% of United Way donors are 18-35 years old.

The Solution to Aging Donors

The obvious solution to aging donors is to attract younger donors. But this is easier said than done.

Younger donors do NOT value or need United Ways to allocate their contribution to local organizations or programs. With the internet and websites like Guidestar and Charity Navigator, anyone can locate, vet, and support local charities and programs. What United Ways are doing now clearly does not attract younger donors.

Younger donors are cause-oriented. A traditional United Way that raises money and allocates it to local partner agencies and funded programs will have a hard time connecting at a cause level with younger donors. The future of your United Way depends on your ability to connect with younger donors so that they can impact their cause through your United Way. Issue focused United Ways do this everyday.

The Issue Focus Business Model is built on the understanding that United Way donors want to impact a local issue and change lives. Issue focused United Ways choose an issue, like poverty, homelessness, graduation rate, or kindergarten readiness, and they lead and convene the community to make a measurable change on that issue. Instead of a campaign goal, their success is measured by the number of families no longer living in poverty, people who now have a home, students who graduated from high school, or children that are ready for kindergarten. And they ask donors and funders to give to reduce poverty, end homelessness, increase the graduation rate, or have every child enter kindergarten ready to learn and not for a campaign goal.

Issue focused United Ways also provide volunteering opportunities for young people to address a cause or issue they care about. Rather than passing volunteers through to other charities, Issue focused United Ways allow young people to develop an emotional connection with United Way.

Fewer Donors

This is not a new trend either. In the past year, the number of donors declined by 17%, and since the turn of the century, the number of donors has dropped by a staggering 76%. Just consider this headline from an article in the New York Times: “United Way, Faced With Fewer Donors, Is Giving Away Less.” As you would expect, the article talks about corporate downsizing, increasing competition for charitable dollars, and donors choosing to designate their contribution or just by-pass United Way and give directly. If this sounds all too familiar, it should. This New York Times article was published on November 9, 1997 – over 25 years ago. You can easily attribute the downward trend in the number of donors to changes in society, technology, the economy, and competition – as well as declining workplace campaigns and aging donors.

The Solution to Fewer Donors

The solution to fewer donors requires United Ways to sell what donors want to support. People no longer want, or need, an organization to vet local charities and allocate money to deserving charities. They can easily do that themselves, if they want to.

The Issue Focus Business Model is built on the understanding that United Way donors want to impact a local issue and change lives. How do we know donors want this? Since 2011, we have been conducting research with local United Way donors in communities large and small. We have asked thousands of United Way donors which they prefer to support – United Way raising money for local partner agencies and programs, or United Way making a measurable impact on a significant local issue. Only 15% of donors want United Way to raise money for local partner agencies and programs, while the remaining 85% of donors want United Way to make a measurable impact on a significant local issue.

When a United Way is issue focused, people know exactly what their contribution will accomplish because an issue focused United Way only addresses one issue with an inspiring goal for success. When a United Way is issue focused, they are able to unify their community, volunteers, donors, partner agencies, board, and staff around a shared vision to address a single issue. Issue focused United Ways can easily explain what they do in just one sentence, and even in as few as two words – “Crush Poverty” or “Halt Hunger.”

Rampant Staff Turnover

We have a unique way of monitoring staff turnover at United Ways. Every two weeks, our blog posts go out to United Way staff, and every time we get auto-reply emails from people who are no longer employed at United Way. Over the past year, the number of auto-reply emails from staff that are no longer employed at United Way has more than tripled. We also regularly hear from United Way executives that they are losing staff to other organizations – the Great Resignation. According to the Pew Research Center, the most common reasons employees voluntarily resigned from their jobs include wage stagnation amid rising cost of living, limited opportunities for career advancement, hostile work environments, lack of benefits, inflexible remote-work policies, and long-lasting job dissatisfaction.

The Solution to Rampant Staff Turnover

One solution to rampant staff turnover is to stop cutting costs and balancing the budget solely by cutting staff. There are United Way boards that have adopted the philosophy that partner agency funding should always be maintained, even when there has been a significant decrease in the amount of money raised. When there is less revenue, cutting costs often means cutting staff since staff costs are the single largest expense for most United Ways. However, when staff positions are cut, the remaining staff are often saddled with additional responsibilities resulting in job dissatisfaction and a decline in morale. Even if staff levels are retained, not giving staff raises or cost of living adjustments also results in job dissatisfaction. It is a vicious circle, United Ways don’t raise enough money, so they cut staff. After cutting staff, they raise even less money the next year.

A United Way executive we had been working with for a while told me this story. He told about how he had considered leaving United Way for another job because he was not motivated or inspired by his work. We helped his United Way adopt an issue focus to address the issue of childhood poverty with a goal to lifting children out of poverty. Following the transformation to an issue focus, he told me how passionate he was about his work and the mission of addressing childhood poverty. He ended up working at that United Way for another 10 years before retiring. Staff who are passionate about their work, and find meaning in the mission, are less likely to be leaving United Way for other jobs.

Is an Issue Focus Your Solution?

An issue focus will help your United Way overcome declining workplace campaigns by helping you diversify your resources. An issue focus will help your United Way overcome aging donors by attracting younger donors who agree with your issue or cause. An issue focus will help your United Way overcome fewer donors by showing donors how their contribution to United Way changes lives. An issue focus will help your United Way overcome rampant staff turnover with a passionate mission that inspires your staff.

An issue focus will help your United Way overcome all of these trends in 2023. Start by taking a couple of minutes to learn more about how an issue focus will transform your United Way by watching our free United Way Survival Guide video. Then let’s have a conversation about whether or not an issue focus could be right for your United Way.