Case Study: United Way

I work for United Way. My job is to help move this historic institution from an efficient fundraiser on behalf of community non-profits (all good organizations) to one with multi-dimensional strategies (i.e. research, investments, public policy, community awareness, volunteer mobilization and fundraising) focused on the region's most pressing social issues. United Way's everywhere are looking themselves in the mirror and asking this central raison de etre: How do we add the most value to the communities we serve?

Why change the largest nonprofit in the country? From a resource and operating efficiency perspective, sure we're successful. What's the problem that needs to be addressed?

In brief, for over a century, United Way has been at work mobilizing resources to make the community better – yet almost all of the social ills we face persist. They stubbornly persist despite all of the dollars we’ve placed against them—further, they are ever more complex.

Consider: More people are homeless; illiteracy is rampant; and educational and wealth disparities persist despite all efforts de jour or otherwise to address them.

However, just like other issues, big and small, these problems can be solved.

Plus, here's an inside scoop: without a change in strategy, United Way is dead, a study in obsolescence.

To understand what that means, consider the razor blade industry; they purposefully make their wares obsolete by releasing better versions of themselves every 3-5 years. You think it took Gillette, driven by a profit motive, five years to figure out that a 4th, 5th or 6th blade would make their Mach Razor better?

So what does this have to do with United Way? In the information age, there is limited value to United Way as mere fundraiser, but extraordinary value to United Way as community problem solver. Built from a foundation of 75 years working closely with corporate, public and nonprofit institutions, we are uniquely positioned to help agencies and corporations work better together by aligning them against common purpose. When United Way substantiates its case by harnessing community will, we can then collectively, dare I say, regionally obtain meaningful results.

Our position enables United Way to serve as trusted broker between the multiple and often disparate community stakeholders we represent. In fact, it was only a year ago that over 6,500 people across the region gave voice to United Way’s first ever Community Action Survey. The survey told us powerful things: Residents demand that the region work better together (by an 85% margin). City/Suburb; Black/White; Rich/Poor – all the dichotomies we know of – shared regional priorities and possessed common aspirations.

With the community voice, United Way moved confidently. We began reframing how we perceive Metro Detroit’s traditional divides. As stewards of the community’s agenda—United Way could leverage the historic response to help change the regional conversation. Suddenly, progress seemed more possible, more imminent, than many could remember for a long time.

Critically, by taking on regional issues, United Way embraces Metro Detroit from a new-narrative perspective, from a “what’s ailing and needs help” to a “what’s possible and can be solved” paradigm.

Baby steps.

But to stay relevant and add value; United Way will continuously need to reframe and transform its work in order to effectively address ever more complex issues. Every industry faces this dilemma these days.

More than that, its personal.

Lou Glazer, of Michigan Future, calls this the “Rock Climber Effect;” simply, there are no more linear ladders to progress and advancement. For as adaptable as we are individually with new technologies, new rules and new realities for advancement, institutions—or any bureaucracy—are slower to keep pace.

Thus, for United Way and other nonprofits, the stark challenge comes after we commit to the necessary transformations our globalized-rock-climber-world demands from us. To more effectively address community problems, we will have to continuously redeploy our efforts by consciously (and rapidly) changing with the times. We must build from the things we do best, do them better, and re-focus our efforts to make long-lasting changes.

Summary: United Way

Relationships – Corporate and nonprofit leaders built on a foundation of working to make the community better in meaningful ways. Add regional voices to synergize community based interests with those of our civic and corporate leaders.

Incentives – Obsolescence. As a prominent leader in a community-first industry and central player in the Infrastructure of Good, United Way owes it to those we serve to change and reposition our work in order to best deliver results where the region shares common purpose.

Old Rules – Built on an industrial, pre-information age bedrock, United Way cannot count on the historic position as Community Fundraiser to be sustainable. We must lead by example to show that “entitlement” is no one’s prerogative anymore. Community stakeholders demand more from us and the investments they make in social causes; United Way and other nonprofits must follow their lead and demand as much from investors in return – this is the new donor institution paradigm.

New World – Be regional, be local. Embrace global. Take risks. Southeast Michigan needs to re-frame the rules by which it engages. It needs leadership from all sectors. Leave your baggage at the door, role your sleeves up, and get to work.

Brad Frost,
Brand Strategist, United Way for Southeastern Michigan
This post is part of an on-going series from MetroMode.