Last week, the day before I graduated college- like the smart little networker that I am, I chose to attend the North Florida Public Relations Society of America luncheon to hear Del Galloway, Vice President of PR at United Way, speak about his experience recreating the international brand.

Galloway began his presentation by asking the room, “What does United Way do?”

The response he got was,”They raise funds for nonprofits and charities.”

Galloway nodded in agreement and explained the reason behind the rebranding of United Way was to shift the focus from purely fundraising to community impact. United Way had been known as a purely fundraising organization, where a speaker would come to your corporate office and you’d sign up to have x amount of money withheld from paychecks and donated to the local United Way. While this type of fundraising works when the economy is doing well, the recession forced the United Way to find a new way to reach out to people and get them involved.

The new slogan, “Live United“, is much more about being connected and inclusive and less about charity. Galloway explained that charities can become divisive, labeling people as those who have and those who have not.

“We’re about inspiration, not desperation,” he said.

They chose to focus on three areas of improvement: Education, income and health.

Galloway explained to us the bold goals United Way set for themselves:

• Cut the number of people dropping out of high school in half.
• Help people become financially stable and get working families on the road to financial independence.
• Increase by 1/3 youth and young adults who are healthy and avoid risky behaviors.

In order to accomplish these goals, the United Way had to invite people to become a part of this movement. They chose three calls to action:

Give. Advocate. Volunteer.

There are more than 1,800 local United Ways. To rebrand such a large organization was a huge undertaking, but also resulted in an enormous amount of media coverage.

Through this media coverage, United Way sought to position themselves as the experts and thought leaders on volunteerism. Gaining positive media coverage about United Way’s new slogan was relatively easy due to having a media savvy CEO, Brian Gallagher and more than 2.5 million volunteers to share the message.

United Way had a huge increase in volunteers and a 35 percent increase in awareness. The most interesting evaluation was that they saw an increase in trust from 75 to 81 percent. I asked Galloway just how he measured trust, since it’s an intangible quality. He told me that they have a research team that conducts surveys designed to measure trust.

At this point of the presentation, former national PRSA president, John Felton (who was sitting next to me!) grabbed my pad and pen and wrote down a study done by Dr. Linda Hon, of the University of Florida, that examined relationships, influence and trust. I’ve looked the study up, but haven’t gotten around to reading it just yet.  Be on the lookout for my review in the coming weeks.

Galloway couldn’t end the presentation without talking about the infamous shirt.

“The shirt took on a life of its own. It got to where people would say, ‘I don’t just wear the shirt. I live it.'”

He said they had to let people own the campaign and put their unique thumbprint on it as he showed us a photo of a barn in the Midwest with “LIVE UNITED” painted across its roof. He also said another rule of thumb among the more than 1,800 United Ways is “no silos!” meaning they share all their information with one another.

And then he gave the best advice I’ve ever heard. Galloway said that all of the employees of United Way live by this mantra:

Be. Do. Say.

And in that order.

How can you apply this mantra to your work and everyday life?

Want to Live United? Get involved with the local United Way here in Northeast Florida.