Think your United Way’s greatest challenge is relevance? You might be right, but addressing your challenges with relevance requires stepping back to assess other challenges too.

In our part of southwest Michigan, you don’t need to drive very far to see a farm with silos next to the barn. The barns and silos that dot the rural southwest Michigan landscape look like they have been there forever, like the tallest oaks and maple trees.

Recently, I saw an interesting editorial from a United Way CEO about how their United Way is changing the way it addresses social issues in their community. What caught my attention in the editorial was not what the United Way is going to do to address the pressing local needs it has identified but how they are going to measure their success.

One of the most common refrains I hear from United Ways is that the times are changing. Society is changing, technology is changing, the economy is changing, and even competition for charitable giving is changing.

“Helping people is easy. Change is hard.” – Gary Goscenski, Issue-Focused Consultant, Perspectives

“An issue focus has changed everything, from how we speak about our work to how we measure our success.” – Pat Berger, President/CEO, United Way of Grand Forks, East Grand Forks & Area