Can You Be Efficient AND Effective?

A lot of United Ways work really hard to be efficient but drop the ball when it comes to being effective.

EFFICIENT

A simple definition for efficient is “Doing something right without wasting time or resources.” For example, if you were painting a room in your house, you would be most efficient using a paint roller rather than a small foam trim brush.

United Ways spend a lot of time and effort trying to make their allocations process, volunteer activities like Day of Action, board meetings, and workplace campaigns as efficient as possible. Over the years, United Ways have adopted new technologies and methods for making these activities more efficient. One of my favorite ways to be more efficient is to stop doing something that is inefficient. For example, instead of creating a new workplace campaign slogan and brochure every year, use the same workplace campaign slogan and brochure for two or three years. United Ways that are doing this tell me no one notices, or cares, if the workplace campaign slogan and brochure is the same from year to year!

To be more efficient in your work, your United Way should examine “how” you should be doing things on a regular basis.

EFFECTIVE

A simple definition for effective is “Doing the right things.” For example, if you need to exercise for health reasons, walking for 30 minutes a day, three times a week, will be more effective than doing 10 push-ups whenever you happen to think about it.

United Ways find it challenging to be effective because they tend to do the same things, at the same time, every year. Just because your United Way did something last year, or ten years ago, does not mean it is effective to do it this year. It is rare when a United Way pauses to answer the question “Why do we keep doing this?” but this is precisely the question that needs to be answered in order to be effective.

ASK WHY?

To be effective, United Ways must ask “why” on a regular basis. Here are some “why” questions your United Way can ask to become more effective in your work:

• Why do we fund the same partner agencies/programs from year to year?

• Why do we have multiple allocation committees or panels?

• Why do we create a new campaign slogan and brochure every year?

• Why do we publicize our campaign goal?

• Why do so many board members miss board meetings?

• Why do we refer people who want to volunteer to other organizations instead of having them volunteer for our United Way?

And while all of these questions are important to consider if your United Way is going to be effective, the “why” question that is more important than all the others is:

WHY DOES YOUR COMMUNITY AND YOUR DONORS NEED YOUR UNITED WAY?

If United Ways were “doing the right things” there would NOT be:

• Fewer donors

• Fewer workplace campaigns

• Less financial support

• Fewer United Ways due to mergers and closures

In the 1970’s and 1980’s, “why” United Ways existed was to vet local charities and make sure donor’s dollars were being spent wisely. But donors no longer need you to do that as they can use organizations like Guidestar or Charity Navigator. In this internet age, donors can research and evaluate charities at their fingertips, without having to give United Way a single dollar.

Donors have realized they don’t need United Way to direct their dollars for them either. With the internet, donors can support all the charities they want directly, without having money taken out to fund the overhead of what they believe is a pass-through organization.

Because United Ways are a pass-through organization, United Ways rarely have results of their own to share with the community. When all your donors see are the results of partner agencies, they question why they should support United Way instead of giving directly to the highlighted nonprofits. Sharing your partner agency’s results is essentially a blinking arrow guiding your donors to give directly to those programs.

United Ways are no longer effective.

THE NEW ‘WHY’

It’s time for United Ways to make a change.

To become effective, your United Way must become issue focused. This means picking an issue or problem in your community that you are passionate about and commit to making meaningful change to address that issue. Your donors want to give and volunteer to impact a specific issue that plagues their community such as poverty, hunger, homelessness, or illiteracy. You must choose an issue around which you can unite your donors and community to create change.

Once you select your issue, you will need to establish a bold goal that your donors will want to support – changing the lives of those impacted by your issue. Your bold goal will measure your success by how many people are no longer living in poverty, no longer unable to read, or no longer homeless.

The next change you must make to become sustainable is diversifying your revenue. With an issue focus and a bold goal of changing lives, your United Way will finally be able to plug the holes left by declining workplace campaigns with grants, corporate sponsorships, and affinity groups that raise money and make impactful change.

Organizations in your community need a convener to give them direction when it comes to making impact on a specific issue. Your United Way is uniquely positioned to be a convener, pulling both funded and non-funded programs together, to address your issue and achieve your bold goal. With an issue focus your United Way will be the hub that unites your donors, community members, workplaces, and organizations to change lives.

ISSUE FOCUSED UNITED WAYS ARE EFFICIENT AND EFFECTIVE

Ask any United Way that has become issue focused and they will tell you bluntly: this is the way you become relevant again. By focusing on an issue, they efficiently create change that is clear and inspiring to their donors and community members. These United Ways have diversified their revenue far beyond their workplace campaigns, providing stability during uncertain times. They convene donors, community members, workplaces, and organizations around their issue, providing a clear road map of how everyone can work together efficiently to make change, rather than going it alone. Issue focused United Ways are effective because they saw the writing on the wall and transformed to become what their community and donors need.