Too much to do? Not enough time? These are common refrains that I hear nearly every day from United Ways large and small. The easiest way to put an end to being overworked and overwhelmed is to stop doing some of the many things you are doing. Here are three things your United Way should stop doing now: 

1. Stop Cutting Costs

For most United Ways, revenue has been shrinking for years. There are many reasons – workplace campaigns continue to decline, donors are retiring, the younger generation does not engage with United Way, and technology allows people to easily give directly to local charities. In response, United Ways are often forced to cut costs. Since staff costs are the single largest expense for most United Ways, cutting costs means cutting staff. When staff positions are cut, it becomes even more difficult for United Way to raise revenue.

Cutting costs is not a long-term sustainable strategy for United Ways. Instead of cutting costs, a more appropriate, albeit harder, strategy for long-term United Way sustainability is growing revenue. In our upcoming webinar Perspectives’ Roadmap to Raising More Money we will discuss the best places for your United Way to raise more money, how to use these methods successfully, and learn from inspiring examples of United Ways who are already doing these methods and thriving.

You may also want to check out my previous blog post How to Grow Revenue Instead of Cutting Costs for more thoughts on the revenue challenges facing United Ways. 

2. Stop Using Silos

Silos at United Ways are easily recognizable by their names. Some United Ways call their silos “Education,” “Income,” and “Health” while other United Ways have more exotic names for their silos like “Safety Net,” “Youth Success,” or “Seniors.” Instead of corn or grain, United Ways store all their funded programs, and in some cases, their partner agencies, in their silos. Everything fits into a silo – as United Ways have built their three, or four, or seven silos so that everything fits.

However, the “build the silos and they will come” approach isn’t as perfect as it seems, as most United Ways end up with an allocation or investment committee for each silo – four silos mean four allocation or investment committees. And when there are multiple committees, the time and effort necessary to manage the allocation process increases by three, or four, or even seven times.

If the purpose of your United Way is to make measurable impact in your community, you don’t need silos. For example, a United Way with the goal of lifting 15,000 families out of poverty by 2030, should determine if a program gets funding by evaluating how effectively the program lifts families out of poverty compared to other programs. There is no need for silos to group programs artificially when the standard for evaluating a program is as simple as “How does the program lift families out of poverty?”

Learn more about how issue focused United Ways do allocation differently by watching our United Way Survival Guide video and check out our blog post Does Your United Way Have Silos?

3. Stop Passing-through Volunteers

United Ways have a long history of serving as matchmakers that connect volunteers to other nonprofits that have their own volunteer opportunities. Whether the mechanism for matching volunteers with opportunities is a Day of Caring, a volunteer center, or passing requests for volunteer opportunities to other nonprofits, the volunteer opportunities most United Ways organize do not actually involve volunteering for United Way.

While mobilizing local volunteers certainly does good for communities, acting as matchmaker does little good for United Ways. When United Ways pass through volunteers to other nonprofits, those volunteers form emotional relationships with those nonprofits instead of United Way. This means that the volunteers United Ways pass through are seven times more likely to become donors to whatever nonprofit they were sent to – not United Way!

If your United Way is acting only as a matchmaker to other nonprofits, you are spending a lot of time and effort to help other nonprofits. If you want to promote local volunteerism to benefit both your community and your United Way, you need to offer your own volunteer opportunities.

Check out these blog posts about volunteer matchmaking and how to build the best volunteering opportunities for your United Way.

If you stop doing these three things, you’ll save time and be able to focus your efforts on the work that will make your United Way sustainable and relevant for years to come.