Hello my friends.  I am Atul Tandon, Executive Director, International Network and Executive Vice President, Investor Relations at United Way Worldwide.  We hope you will enjoy our newsletter, RD Connections, and find that the strategies and best practices will both educate and motivate you and your volunteers.   Our goal is to highlight individuals, organizations and ideas that have proven successful.   We also hope you will let us know about your successes so they can be shared as well.   One of the great benefits of being part of the United Way family is that we can learn from one another.

This is a time of great challenges and opportunities for United Way.   We are losing donors at an alarming rate.   The traditional manufacturing and financial service industry base that has been the bedrock of United Way workplace campaigns is shrinking or in economic upheaval.  Indeed, we seem to be working much harder for fewer dollars.

But out of these challenges come opportunities.   We are re-engineering the workforce and learning how to build relationships directly with the employees rather than relying exclusively on the gatekeeper.  Promising work has been done to develop a robust individual engagement platform so we can attract, retain and grow support from individuals.   We are also taking a longer-term perspective of donors placing greater importance on life time relationships and ultimate legacy gift.

So please take a moment and read our newsletter.   Tell us what you think.   Above all, let us know if you have a story to tell.  We'd love to share the news!