Cheryl Lund

Abstract

The United Way is an organization that exists for the purpose of helping people in need and bringing about positive social outcomes for the public good. Raising sufficient funds through donations continues to be a challenge in the face of decreasing public assistance, and increased cynicism in the United Way caused by the United Way scandal of 1992. The general downward trend of donations to non-profit organizations is reflected in the donations to the Rochester Institute of Technology's United Way campaign. In the past, employee participation in RIT's United Way campaign was 73%, which has been decreasing throughout the years to a low of 60.5% in 1997. In order to reverse this downward trend, the non-profit organization should be analyzed using the same methods of analysis used in for-profit organizations. One method is use of a questionnaire to determine if the United Way is meeting the needs of its "customers", and also if the campaign events and awareness efforts are effective. The needs of the "internal customers" of RIT's United Way campaign, the Key Captains, are examined as well as the methods used to train the Key Captains. The responses to one major change in the campaign, the distribution method of pledge cards, were also solicited. Two questionnaires were sent through interoffice mail. The first survey was sent to all RIT faculty and staff, which represent the potential donors to RIT's United Way campaign, and the second was sent to the Key Captains. Data obtained from the two surveys were analyzed using SPSS. The majority of respondents do not attend RIT's United Way campaign events, the United Way Campaign video was rated the most effective method of delivering the United Way message, and respondents had no preference of pledge card delivery while the Key Captains favored personal delivery of pledge cards. The number one reason why respondents contributed to this year's United Way campaign was due to a sense of responsibility to RIT and/or the Rochester community. The number one reason given for not contributing to this year's United Way campaign was the preference to send a contribution directly to a particular cause. Crosstabs were also performed to examine potential relationships between the answers given to the survey questions with the gender of the respondent, whether they are faculty or staff, and whether they contributed to this year's campaign.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

United Way of Greater Rochester--Finance--Statistics; Rochester Institute of Technology--Employees--Charitable contributions--Statistics; Universities and colleges--Charitable contributions--New York (State)--Rochester

Publication Date

1998

Document Type

Thesis

Department, Program, or Center

School of Food, Hotel and Tourism Management (CAST)

Advisor

Marecki, Richard

Advisor/Committee Member

Domoy, Francis

Comments

Note: imported from RIT’s Digital Media Library running on DSpace to RIT Scholar Works. Physical copy available through RIT's The Wallace Library at: HV97.U553 L86 1998

Campus

RIT – Main Campus

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