Why Workplace Campaigns are Declining

There is no question workplace campaigns are declining, so the big question we all want to know the answer to is “Why?” Let’s dig into this question and see if we can find the answer.

Giving at Work is Alive and Well

Workplace campaigns, as conducted by United Ways, are just one example of providing employees with opportunities to support charities at or through the workplace.

In addition to United Ways, there are a lot of organizations providing employees with opportunities to support charities at or through the workplace such as: Benevity, Your Cause, Submittable, Millie, Bright Funds, Selflessly, Alaya, GoodCompany, Catalyser, Deed, Give 360, America’s Charities, Uncommon Giving, Fidelity Charitable – the list is seemingly endless. These organizations use a variety of terms for their services such as payroll giving, workplace giving, employee giving, or charitable gifting; all of which provide organizations an opportunity to allow their employees to give.

You need to look no further than Benevity (according to their website: “$15 billion donated by Benevity Clients/20 million users browsing our platform”) to see the significant impact of giving at work.

If giving at work is alive and well, then workplace campaigns must be declining for another reason.

Brand Awareness of United Way

United Way has always had good brand awareness. Over the years, United Way Worldwide has commissioned their own studies which have found that overall awareness has been over 90%, while other external assessments of brand awareness such as Zion & Zion’s Brand Awareness Rankings found a very respectable 65%.

There is a difference between brand awareness and understanding what United Way does. A lot of the time and effort that is spent on workplace campaigns is spent explaining the impact of giving to United Way. These efforts include campaign brochures, campaign videos, employee presentations, social media, press conferences, posters, emails, etc. The methods have changed over the years, and communication opportunities have been different after COVID, but clearly United Ways pull out all the stops to communicate what United Way does.

If there is good awareness of United Way, and United Ways make extraordinary efforts to communicate what they do, then workplace campaigns must be declining for another reason.

Rise of the Internet

One of the reasons why workplace campaigns are declining is the internet. The internet has made it possible for people to quickly and easily give to a charity of their choice, as well as vet that charity using services like Guidestar and Charity Navigator. In addition to giving directly to a charity on the internet, there are plenty of crowdfunding opportunities such as GoFundMe, Fundly, Donate Kindly, FundRazr, Snowball, Givebutter, and RallyUp. Unsurprisingly, younger generations (millennials, gen Z, etc.) use the internet as their primary method for charitable giving.

If you were to graph the growth of internet access with the decline of workplace campaigns, you would see they are moving in opposite directions. In 1998, approximately 1 in 6 households had internet access, while nearly 85% of all households had internet access by 2018. Household internet access grew by over 500% between 1998 and 2018, while workplace campaign revenue declined by nearly 280% (inflation adjusted) between 1998 and 2018.

As internet access became more prevalent, United Way workplace campaigns declined.

Do People Need and Value United Way?

Although the internet contributed to the decline of workplace campaigns, the primary reason workplace campaigns are declining is due to the fact that people do not need or value what United Way does enough to support United Way.

Most donors do not want or need a pass-through organization. They are capable of choosing their own charities to support (and can vet them with the help of the internet). Our research with local United Way donors have found that on average only 15% of United Way donors want their United Way to allocate money to a wide variety of local nonprofits, while 85% of donors want their United Way to lead and measurably impact a significant local issue like poverty or homelessness. This is especially true for younger generations where nearly 100% of donors under 35 years old want their United Way to lead and measurably impact a significant local issue.

If there was any group of donors who truly valued what United Way was doing, you would think it would be retirees. But rarely do retirees, many of whom have supported United Way for years if not decades, make a contribution to United Way after they retire. It is almost as if retirees contributed to the workplace campaign because it was convenient, or they were expected to give, and not because of what United Way was doing. If retirees truly believed in the work of United Way, after giving for many years more of them would find a way to continue contributing after they retire.

Can the Decline be Reversed?

In a word “no.” The internet, workplace giving services like Benevity, online giving portals like GoFundMe, nonprofit data sources like Guidestar, and third-party processors – none of these are going away. There is nothing any United Way can do about any of the significant changes in the charitable giving landscape over the past two decades. That does not mean you should give up on workplace campaigns, but rather to recognize that workplace campaigns will continue to decline, and that United Ways will need to change to survive.

Return to Relevance and Sustainability: Part 1

To remain relevant and sustainable for the future, the first step is to carefully evaluate what your donors want and need you to do. When we ask local donors what they want their United Way to do, on average 85% of donors say they want their United Way to lead and measurably impact a significant local issue.

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.

Learn more about an issue focus and how our New Directions Board and Staff Retreat can help your United Way return to relevance and sustainability.

Return to Relevance and Sustainability: Part 2

The second step is to diversify your resources. It is nearly impossible to diversify your resources if your United Way exists solely to pass-through money to local nonprofits. Grant-making organizations will not give United Way a grant just to have United Way allocate that money to other local nonprofits.

If your United Way is issue focused, and you are working to address an issue like poverty or homelessness, then you will be able to secure grants, sponsorships, and planned giving to support your work. Although Issue Focused United Ways may not be able to grow their workplace campaigns, Issue Focused United Ways are successfully diversifying and growing their total resources.

You can learn more about diversifying and growing your resources by watching our webinar “Yes, You Can! Raising Money Outside of the Workplace.”