Help Your Donors Catch Eudaimonia
EUDAIMONIA
(n) eu·dae·mo·nia: well-being, happiness
Philosophers including Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, have all wrestled with the meaning of eudaimonia and although they arrive at slightly different conclusions, there is general agreement that well-being and happiness comes from living a life of virtue and purpose.
That being said, let’s explore how your United Way can help your donors achieve well-being and happiness through a life of virtue and purpose.
YOUR DONOR’S GOAL
Pretend for a moment that you are an executive at Ford Motor Company and the corporate goal for this year is to sell 750,000 Ford F-150 pick-up trucks. Would you put out a bunch of ads saying: “Help us reach our goal of selling 750,000 pick-up trucks this year – buy your F-150 today!” Of course not, because Ford’s goal of selling 750,000 pick-up trucks by itself would not motivate anyone to buy even one pick-up truck. While a sales goal of 750,000 pick-up trucks might be one measure of Ford Motor Company’s purpose, it clearly has nothing to do with the customer’s goal for buying a pick-up truck.
The question to be answered is: What goal would a donor have for giving to your United Way? United Ways have struggled for years to attract and keep donors because a campaign goal is your United Way’s goal and not the goal of your donors. A donor’s goal relates to their wanting to live a life of virtue and purpose by helping make their community better. For example, donors give to charities to end homelessness, crush poverty, and halt hunger in their community. Donors will give to your United Way when they can see that your United Way has a goal of meaningfully impacting a social issue facing your community. United Ways that do this are issue focused.
RESULTS NOT PROCESS
Once again picture yourself as an executive at Ford Motor Company and you are trying to convince people to purchase an F-150 pick-up truck. Would you put out a bunch of ads that say: “Buy a Ford F-150 pick-up truck because 834 engineers spent three and a half-years designing your truck!” Of course not, because the number of engineers, and the time they spent, are part of the manufacturing process and do not tell the customer anything about the experience they will have owning the truck.
Your donors need to know the results of their contribution, not your United Way’s process. The number of allocation committee volunteers and the hours spent by those volunteers are irrelevant to a donor. The donor wants to know how many children are now reading at grade level because of their contribution, or how many families are no longer homeless and have a permanent home as examples.
In two words your results are “lives changed.” Donors want to know that their contribution has changed lives in their community. When you are able to tell a donor “Donating to United Way helps 300 at-risk children enter kindergarten ready to learn” you are helping that donor realize a life a virtue and purpose that comes from donating to your United Way. Once again, United Ways that do this are issue focused.
CATCHING EUDAIMONIA
To help your donors catch eudaimonia, the first step is to carefully evaluate what goal your United Way is fulfilling for your donors. The second step is to decide what results your United Way will strive to achieve.
Issue Focused United Ways <<< insert link: https://uw.focusedperspectives.com/issue-focus-transformation >>> 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. Issue Focused United Ways are intentional in their funding of only those programs that will help achieve the goal for their issue.
Learn more about an issue focus and how our New Directions Board and Staff Retreat can help your donors catch eudaimonia.