What’s your brand identity?

A colleague of mine and his wife recently became parents of multiples. One day he commented to me that his new status as a father had immediately become the first thing mentioned whenever he was introduced to someone new.

He observed that single fact seemed to take precedence over any other aspect of both his personal and his professional life.

If a person has a brand identity, suddenly his was that he was a father of triplets. No other academic or professional milestones or achievements that show up on his resume could compete with that new definition.

That got me thinking about how an organization acquires a brand identity and how tough it is to change it.

In the case of United Way, the reputation earned over nine decades is that United Way primarily raises money in the workplace for local human service needs.

As in my friend’s case, it’s not a bad rep. But it’s far from complete. United Way does so much more than that. But more importantly, it’s a reputation that doesn’t come across as inclusive as it should.

Do we expect everyone to know all that United Way does? Not really.

But we would like folks to know that despite the constant drum beat of bad news they see and hear everywhere these days, they are not powerless to help make GOOD news.

And they can do that through United Way.

You may be retired. Or you may work at home. Or you might even work somewhere that does not give employees an opportunity to give to United Way. You can still be a part of a six-county strong effort to help your neighbors who are hurting today.

And you can still be a part of an ambitious education agenda designed to make our community stronger down the road.

That’s the reason we’ve created LiveUnitedGiveUnited.org. It’s a place where anyone of any age or circumstance can visit and be invited to LIVE UNITED.

The bottom line? Like my friend the new dad, we’re not unhappy about the image most folks have of United Way. We just want everyone to know that it’s not the WHOLE picture. And we definitely want everyone to know that we welcome them. In fact we NEED them to join us in making good news!

-- Mary Kinney, United Way

Editor's note: Huge thanks to WTHR for this morning's story on the LiveUnitedGiveUnited.org web site and also to Eli Lilly and Company for their continued generous support!