Reach Into Your Wallets: Reconnecting The United Way of Ont - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Reach Into Your Wallets: Reconnecting The United Way of Ontario County and HWS Talia Alon, Drew Fienberg, Kendra Manning, and Jake ShapiroHobart and William Smith Colleges

The United Way of Ontario County is a non profit organization that prides themselves on being community problem solvers. They work hard to bring together people and resources to help solve some of our communities most pressing issues. The easiest way to explain what the United Way does is to think of an umbrella. When it rains an umbrella aids everything underneath it; the United Way works in the same fashion. The United way supports 38 different non profit organizations in areas of student readiness and success, supporting people in crisis, and strengthening people and families. The United Way benefits over 40,000 people in Ontario County every year.

The United Way’s mission is to raise awareness and outreach to increase community resources to help confront its most demanding issues in categories relating to financial stability, education, and health. United Way aims for a 15% participation rate, but only 2% of HWS faculty, administration, and staff donate to the United Way (K.

Buch, personal communication, March 6, 2017). Why is this happening? Our study focuses on reconnecting Hobart and William Smith Colleges with the United Way of Ontario County. If more Hobart and William Smith Colleges faculty, staff, and administrators donate to United Way, the agency will be better able to carry out its mission and help the community.

Survey Results: There were 135 respondents that took our survey. 98% of respondents have heard of the United Way prior to taking the survey, while only 2% have not.  59% of respondents have said that they donated to the United Way in the past, but only 5% have donated because of the HWS Human Resources email that was sent to faculty, staff, and administration once a year. 71% of respondents said the United Way was an effective way to donate, while 29% said the United Way was not. Those felt positive because of the wide dispersion of their donation while those against would rather donate to organizations directly. 51% of respondents said that they donated to the United Way because they support what the organization stood for. 86% of respondents said they give to other nonprofit organization. We were interested to find that 54% of respondents did know they could target a gift to selected organizations and 46% said they did not. Our results also showed that respondents perceived best practice to solicit donations were  email (43%), paper mail (23%), online (13%), other (8%), payroll deduction (6%), Social Media (5%) and Human Resources communication (>1%).  Interview Results: There were five higher education institutions that were interviewed. Only one of the schools interviewed had a student group on campus. The institutions drive participation through personal stories. The statistics were posted around campus to show the public who in their community are receiving aid. They also send out multiple emails and letters to provide updates on the stories and statistics. The institutions have established faculty leaders on campus that can reach people in their departments, which increased rates of participation at all of the schools we spoke with. Also, many of the schools organized activities to spread awareness on campus. These included gift basket raffles and jean days. The most successful events were organized as month long events that occurred one or each semester. Faculty, staff, and administration were made aware of this in advance and each of the schools held a large kick off event that typically included participation from University leaders such as Presidents and Deans. Mixed responses on whether electronic or paper campaigns were most successful. However, each respondent stressed that regular communication (especially during the focused month) was best for receiving donations. Additionally, each respondent said that they do not utilize social media as much as they would like and were certain that if they could had a greater social media presence (such as an Instagram page featuring photos of volunteers) they would increase donations. Nearly every respondent agreed that establishing annual events is the best way to spread awareness of the United Way on college campuses. Lastly, there were mixed responses on which form of receiving donations was most successful. Half of the schools said that most people donated through automatic payroll deduction while the other half thought asking for an amount one time each year was best. There was a consensus that asking for a generally smaller amount was best. For example, $2 from each payroll check or $10 at once. Preliminary Recommendations:1. Increase communication between United Way of Ontario County and HWS faculty/staff/administration.2.Emphasize the importance of giving.3.Add a United Way students group on HWS campus. Conclusions:The United Way of Ontario County needs a more sophisticated method of working with the colleges to increase participation rates. This includes events on campus, dedicated donation drives, committed student groups, and all around greater awareness and presence from United Way representatives.

Andreoni, James. “Impure Altruism and Donations to Public Goods: A Theory of Warm-Glow Giving.” The Economic Journal, vol. 100, no. 401, 1990, pp. 464–477. www.jstor.org/stable/2234133.Bag, Parimal Kanti, and Santanu Roy. “Repeated Charitable Contributions under Incomplete Information.” The Economic Journal, vol. 118, no. 525, 2008, pp. 60–91., www.jstor.org/stable/4625582.Brown, Philip H., and Jessica H. Minty. “Media Coverage and Charitable Giving after the 2004 Tsunami.” Southern Economic Journal, vol. 75, no. 1, 2008, pp. 9–25., www.jstor.org/stable/20112025.Harbaugh, William T. “The Prestige Motive for Making Charitable Transfers.” The American Economic Review, vol. 88, no. 2, 1998, pp. 277–282., www.jstor.org/stable/116933.Sieg, Holger, and Jipeng Zhang. “THE EFFECTIVENESS OF PRIVATE BENEFITS IN FUNDRAISING OF LOCAL CHARITIES.” International Economic Review, vol. 53, no. 2,   2012, pp. 349–374.www.jstor.org/stable/23251591.Susan Rose-Ackerman. “Charitable Giving and ‘Excessive’ Fundraising.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, vol. 97, no. 2, 1982, pp. 193–212. www.jstor.org/stable/1880754.Wiepking, Pamala, and Ineke Maas. “Resources That Make You Generous: Effects of Social and Human Resources on Charitable Giving.” Social Forces, vol. 87, no. 4, 2009, pp. 1973–1995. www.jstor.org/ stable/40345005.     

CHART or PICTURE

Survey: We surveyed HWS Faculty/Staff/Administration through the website Survey Monkey. Using the internet made it easier for both the respondents and the researchers to get participation. Respondents were able to answer the questions on their own time, while the researchers were able to obtain the information with less time constraint. The survey was sent out to all faculty/staff/administration at HWS, and they had the choice of participating. All responses were anonymous. The survey had 21 questions and about their general information, if they knew what united way was prior to taking the survey, what other organizations they donate to, and if they have any recommendations to get people on the HWS campus to donate to the United Way. Interviews: The second part of our research methods involved interviewing human resource departments at colleges and universities including: Brockport University, St. John Fisher College, Monroe Community College, University of Rochester, and Nazareth College. We asked them a series of questions regarding driving donation rates, methods of best practice, ways of advertisement, and techniques of mass communication. We then scribed the interviews and proceeded to code and find patterns to aid us in coming up with recommendations.

Our first task was to research the United Way Foundation and learn about the culture of the organization and how it actively continues to prove successful as a national organization. Next, we met with the Regional Director of Ontario Counties United Way to learn about the problems our local United Way faces, especially with participation rates at Hobart and William Smith Colleges. We learned that HWS participation rates among faculty, staff, and administration only totaled 2%. To understand why this was happening we decided to administer surveys to HWS faculty, staff, and administration, reach out to other United Way county representatives affiliated with other colleges and universities, and interview the human resources department of those affiliated institutions. We analyzed the data, created graphs, and looked for patterns that would help us further understand this disconnect. Our last task was to compile our data and create a report describing our scope of work, methods, findings, recommendations to help the United Way reconnect with Hobart and William Smith Colleges.

BACKGROUND

SCOPE OF WORK

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM AND PURPOSE

METHODS

BIBLIOGRAPHY