CEO Renee Moe Talks about United Way’s Direction and Campaign: The Power of Coming Together (Part 2 of 2)
United Way CEO Renee Moe has been with United Way of Dane County in some capacity since she was a student intern in the late 1990s.
by Jonathan Gramling
While Renee Moe, CEO of the United Way of Dane County, never envisioned herself as a leader growing up, it just seemed to naturally happen. But leadership roles seemed to come noe’s way throughout her childhood and that extended to her work at United Way of Dane County. With her breadth of experience and passion for doing the work, it’s no wonder that Moe was appointed United Way’s CEO in 2015.
One thing that hasn’t changed about United Way over the years, dating back 100 years, is its role as the major fundraiser for non-profits in Madison and Dane County. Come the end of August, everyone knows what time it is.
“It is campaign time,” Moe exclaimed. “It starts in August with our Kick-Off at Breeze Stevens Field. The Kick-Off is a wonderful way to get the community together. Everyone is off doing things in the summer and kids are going back to school. ‘Hey, let’s refocus. Let’s focus on our community.’ The fact of the matter is we plan for the campaign all year. And of course, we are fundraising all year. And so, in the spring, we often have conversations with our major donors and CEOs to say, ‘The campaign is coming. What thoughts do you have about what is going on in your workforce.’ And at the same time, we are having conversations with non-profits about what the needs are what the priorities are to message. And then in the summertime, we’re doing a lot of training of the volunteers. There are a lot of people inside workplaces who run campaigns. And we’re getting better about not only working on fundraising in businesses, but also in the community, individuals who are in groups like The Links or Women United or Young Professionals or retirement groups or a business volunteer network. We help those volunteers help us be advocates and champions to mobilize more caring power. And then in the fall, it’s the Big Kick-Off. ‘Hey community, it’s United Way season. It’s time to come together.’”
Back in the 1980s and 1990s, United Way — and Community Shares — were doing the only fundraising from September through November. United Way’s non-profit members were prohibited from doing any fundraising during this time — the closed period — through their agency agreements. Things have become more complex.
“When United Way started in 1922, the goal really was to aggregate more resources, to get more agencies the resources that they need,” Moe said. “And it is a very different world. You can give on your phone. You can give at your grocery store. You can give through Facebook. And not everyone gives to 501(c)(3)s. Some people want to give directly to individuals. So it is a very different philanthropic environment. But we do know that for the dollars that we are able to raise, especially those that are designed to go towards the greatest needs for the Plan for Community Well-being, we are getting families out of poverty into stability. We are getting people into family sustaining wages. We are helping parents get more confidence. We are reducing low birth rates. To be able to see results over time, we talk about these big-picture numbers and strategies, that shows up in your home. That shows up in your relationships. That shows up in your sense of confidence, belonging and that feeling that ‘I am supported by the community. I can be successful in this city.’ Right now, that is only happening for 73,000 people. And it is even a smaller number who are fully getting to what their personal dreams are. We are hoping with more and more attention towards how we work together and are together and more fundraising that helps us align around strategies that work, that we can help support the non-profits and the individual to get to greater success.”
And as Madison and Dane County’s economies have evolved and changed, United Way and its strategies have had to evolve right along with it.
“The public sector used to be 33 percent of the workforce,” Moe observed. “Now it is 25 percent. It’s been a difficult change. We have had great support from start-up companies that have grown bigger like Exact Sciences. No one would call them a start-up anymore. And Kevin Conway actually said to me when they were growing and Oscar Mayer was closing, ‘I hope we can be a larger supporter like Oscar Mayer.’ And they are. Isn’t that beautiful? And so we have really taken that approach to reach into a lot of other entrepreneurs, a lot of technologists and really keep our eye on the ball where there are new businesses forming. We have had a number of technologist councils and people involved, they are entrepreneurs. They want to solve their own problems. Sometimes partnering in with the non-profit who already does a really great job in starting services, they want to build a new way and complement or support them in other ways. That’s not a criticism. It’s just a different way of thinking about new ways to solve the problems. We’ve had to really shift and think through how do we help get people approximate to what the issues
are and how they can support us. I will say, in terms of more traditional workplace campaigns where there is a corporate gift and employees are asked to give, that has not been as successful as going to leaders or individuals to say, ‘Would you invest in this particular priority area?’ I’m really excited to see that there are many, many more younger donors. There are many more types of industries who are getting involved. And if you look at a cross section of companies who are supporting United Way and the number of individuals who are supporting United Way, it is a very diverse group. I would say a few years ago, we had a very white donor base, very 1950s-1960s professionals, may of them men if you looked at the demographics. And now, there is a much larger range of ages, a wider range of races, and certainly a much wider range of industries. That is pretty exciting because the united part of United Way is everyone getting involved.”
Especially when the pandemic interrupted everyone’s lives and everyone’s work experience, the art of workplace giving isn’t the same.
“I would say that last year was one of the most challenging campaigns I ever experienced,” Moe said. “I’ve done this 26 times. The prior two years, we were almost all virtual during the pandemic. And last year, was the first year of the campaign went hybrid. But a lot of companies were also figuring out how were they hybrid or in-person or out-of-office. And so we’ve had to do a lot of innovating and a lot of really creative thinking to help reach people because they don’t necessarily have an all-company meeting. Or they don’t come in and do a bake sale, the fun activities that build culture and help strengthen teams and help people feel really good about helping the community. That is much harder to do. We’ve been doing on-site volunteer projects. We’ve been doing some virtual work like webinars and events. It was a really, really challenging year last year. We did not hit our goal last year. And so this year, we have adjusted the goal to be more in line with what was raised with a little bit extra because we know the needs are greater.
United Way’s 2024 goal is $17.3 million. But Moe knows the need is far greater.
“I believe based on our research and data that if we were to fully scale the strategies of the Plan for Community Well-being to reach every family in poverty, we need a $40 million campaign,” Moe emphasized. “The reality of raising $40 million in this environment is challenging. And people say that is ridiculous. You don’t want to set a goal that isn’t attainable. But I do think it is important to share that this is what we need. Now that $40 million does not include housing inventory. That would be much more. But the programs and services that work, that help get people to stability and their self-defined goals would be a $40 million campaign. And because we’ve had a lot of disruption in the Oscar Mayers — we’re thankful for Exact Sciences for stepping in — there are a lot of other companies that have reduced their giving or there are other companies who are now using other technology services and they aren’t necessarily using United Way as a portal to aggregate their giving as well. We’ve had more giving with people who earn higher wages — there is no surprise there — but I do think there is a little bit more pressure on those who are at minimum or low income to be able to give because costs are higher. And so you have the inverse relationship of when needs are higher, giving goes down. And also there have been a lot of changes in the economy and the workplace. We have not functionally increased our goal for a number of years. And we are really trying to design new ways of looking at major gifts and grants and getting more people mobilized. The theme is ‘Be One of the Ones.’ Hey everyone, we get it. The last three years have been particularly hard. A lot of people stopped giving. A lot of people are feeling very lonely and isolated. Come back into the community. Give. Serve others. Do something beyond yourself. Meet new friends. Be part of the community.’ And we think that is going to help these goals get back up again. We have a lot of people who care.”
While the annual campaign ends around Thanksgiving, that doesn’t mean that people can’t make a donation.
“People usually give through end-of-year giving for tax-purpose kinds of things,” Moe observed. “But we will take resources anytime. We will take money all year round, anytime through our website or dropping something off through the mail. Our website is www.unitedwaydanecounty.org.”
There is no bad time to make a contribution to the community. When people give, they often get it back in a higher quality of life for all community members. Giving to United Way and other fundraising organizations is a win-win for the community.