Okay, here’s the normal November schtick. A couple of hapless folks get hornswoggled into running the United Way campaign drive for the office. They set up a week of lunchtime meetings — come eat something we provide and listen to stories / videos / PPTs of Important and Serious and Socially Responsible Things the United Way does. Pick up your forms (or get the web address), turn in your pledge. Read e-mails about How All Terribly Important it is. Get e-mails from your manager about the same. Watch the levels on one or more thermometer posters slowly rise. Go back on autopilot.
I’ve seen this for the last twenty years.
This year, though … wow.
No thermometers. A minimum of grim-n-gritty-n-Socially-Responsible lecturing. People know the routine. Instead, we had a (donate to enter) putt-putt tournament in the building. A Find the Ceramic Pig contest (for some nice gift cards) each day. UW fliers with word searches on them above the urinals. Pay-by-the-inch to cut off a slice of your manager’s tie. Amusing e-mails you actually want to read.
Good stuff. Entertaining stuff. Stuff that makes you want to actually do something in the campaign, or at least keeps you from feeling like it’s the Same-Ol’ Same-Ol’.
I have no idea how the fund-raising will go — I’ll let you know — but it’s made it all a lot nicer and more enjoyable than any such campaign I’ve been in to date.
Kudos.
That brings up a damn good point. I think people, myself namely, would be more inclined to give money to a cause when they aren’t made to feel like shit for not giving, or pressured into it by appealing to emotions.
Like anything else, any particular play on emotions wears thin after a while.
Some folk probably do respond better for being guilted into things. Others appreciate lots of info and rational argument. Others just want to have fun. And most prefer a mixture.
One company I worked for made you feel as if you **needed** to donate. I told them to go pound salt, as I gave through my church, personal (direct) donations and community service.
Pressure came down, even a call from the head of the company to my boss to try and get me to contribute. I told them to pound salt again.
A few months later the first of the United Way scandals broke..you may remember them…executives at the charity making no-no with charity funds.
United Way had a really bad ratio of how much money actually went to those in need vs. “administrative costs”. I wonder if they’ve improved the ratio any?
Last I heard from 4 years ago was that they were still one of the worst charities in terms of money used versus what’s coming in. They appear to have cleaned up the scandals, but not efficiency problems. That was enough incentive for me to look elsewhere. There are plenty of other well deserving charities.