How to raise funds in hard times: have a vision, create a strategy

When author and preacher Norman Vincent Peale wrote, “empty pockets never held anyone back ... only empty heads and empty hearts can do that,” he could have been talking about the innovation and insight that is being employed in this year’s United Way campaign.

Officially launched last week, the annual fund raising drive has some challenging times ahead, as some of the United Way’s biggest supporters are unemployed, underemployed and possibly even accessing support from some of the umbrella organization’s member agencies.

Each year the United Way has set a target, and has usually met it. Last year, even after nickel prices plummeted and the economy took a nose-dive, the organization still managed to meet its goal of $2.4 million. They’ve come a long way since its first goal of $317,000 in 1982.

This year, rather than set another mind-blowing goal, the group, led by 2009 chair Lyse-Anne Papineau, is focussing on involving more people in the movement.

“There is strength in numbers,” she said during the United Way launch at École secondaire du Sacré-Coeur school. Papineau is director of the French-language Catholic Board.

“Next January we want to increase our number of donors from 9,000 to 12,000. We want more of the community involved, whether they give $5 or $500.”

Locally, the United Way supports about 60 programs, including the Victorian Order of Nurses, the John Howard Society, the CNIB, the MS Society of Canada, Iris Addiction Recovery for Women, and the Canadian Red Cross.
“In a time when we are all tempted to tighten our belts and save, save, save, it is imperative that we remember the people in our community who are using our funded programs for the first time this year,” Papineau stated on the United Way Sudbury web site at unitedwaysudbury.com.

“I ask you, what will happen when an individual in need of a United Way/Centraide funded program finds its doors closed? Where will they turn?”

In the time of crisis, no matter if its personal or public, we all need one another. The United Way campaign cabinet has wisely embraced the power of people, as opposed to the power of profit. They plan on telling the tales of its affiliates, to give people a first-person look at the “challenges and successes” of helping those who are affected by life’s calamities.

The group is also wisely employing the efforts of youth from secondary to post-secondary school levels “to engage our young citizens to become involved in the United Way/Centraide movement and inspire others to do the same.”

United Way is also promising to streamline its special events to make them more inclusive and “to create a stronger sense of community.” Perhaps we’ll be seeing fewer $550-a-plate dinners and more $5.50 spaghetti meals, in an effort to bring more people to the communal table of charity.

And finally, Papineau says the group will analyze its workplace campaigns “to strengthen them from the ground up, to create a stable base of sustainable donors to build upon year after year.”

This last statement holds the most promise and will likely be the charitable organization’s greatest challenge. But if it is successful in bringing thousands of new donors aboard, it will be an ideal base on which the organization can grow its donations for years to come.

Donating directly from one’s pay cheque, before it even hits the bank account, is a relatively painless way to help out those in need. Just think of it as another way to “save, save, save.” Except this time, a way to “save, save, save” another person in distress.

Wendy Bird is managing editor of Northern Life newspaper.