United Way for Southeastern Michigan

Click here for part one of the Digital meet 'n' greet

Since I'll be the one taking you on this digital meet 'n' greet tour of United Way, maybe I should tell you a little about me first. My name is Ursula Adams and I'm the United Way for Southeastern Michigan webmaster. You can call me the Digital Diva.

On a personal note, I'm a 30-something, Gen X'er, wife, daughter, step-mom, homebody, computer geek, closet goddess, and wanna-be rock star (I can't sing to save my life, I just want the fancy clothes). My husband, Bryan, is a laid-off steel worker. My step-daughter is a student in one of our Turnaround schools. The work of United Way affects me very personally. I need this region to grow and prosper, I need our schools to graduate strong, prepared students, because my family'slivelihood depends on it every bit as much as yours does. 

 

I've been with United Way for eight years as of this month. In the United Way SEM world, that means I'm an old-timer. I started with the organization in 2001 as a trainer for the (now defunct) Michigan Comnet program. My job was to teach other nonprofits how to create websites and then we (United Way) hosted the websites for them.

I always wondered, back then, why we spent so much time teaching other nonprofits how to build good websites, but didn't pay much attention to our own. (Seriously, I used it as an example of what not to do in my classes.) Nobody really had ownership over our website and it was usually left to the care of a seasonal intern or, well, whoever seemed to have an interest in web design at the time.

There was a big disconnect between the organization as a whole and so many of our community programs back in those days. There were so many talents that should have been cross-pollinated in the organization, but instead we all stuck to our own little corners of the world.

That all changed in 2003 in a BIG WAY. Enter Michael J. Brennan. (Seriously, someone cue some music...)

One of my first memories of Mike was being called to his office - a stately, walnut-paneled, behemoth of a room that I had never even been in during my first 18 months at United Way - to discuss the formation of one of our first cross-functional teams.  I commented on how impressed I was with his office. "Want it?" he asked.

He wasn't joking. Mike moved out of the stately, walnut-paneled, behemoth office shortly there-after, to an open office space. And, years later, he moved us all into one big open office space, void of behemoth walnut-paneled offices, or any offices for that matter, because it is more conducive to community-minded work.

And that's how it's always been these past six years working for Mike. Everything, and I mean everything, from where we are located to how our meetings are structured to how our organization is staffed is based upon one premise - to do what is absolutely best for the community we serve. Admittedly, I don't always understand why Mike has us do what we do (though I always catch on eventually), but I never have a doubt about the intention - to do what is absolutely best for the community.

But, back to where we began - this isn't a blog about Mike (that will come later), it's about me.

So, there were my first two years here, and then the rest. I've gone from teaching other nonprofits how to build websites, to spending day-in and day-out trying to figure out how to make not just the best United Way website, but how to put together the best overall electronic marketing campaign. I'm proud to say that our United Way has been #2 in online fundraising (only behind the national organization) out of the 1400+ US United Ways and that our website has won awards from the United Way system time and time again. Many other pieces of our electronic marketing (our electronic newsletters, our blogs, our Facebook Causes, etc.) have been lifted up as best practices not only in the United Way system, but by other partners - nonprofit and for-profit alike.

It's a constantly changing and challenging field but, at the end of the day, I play on the Internet for a living - all in the name of doing what is absolutely best for the community. How cool is that?

Okay, seriously, it's not play. In the past year I've collaborated with, among others, Blue State Digital, the team behind Barack Obama's presidential campaign, Dr. Paul Resnick from the University of Michigan, the Click on Detroit web team, and the founder of Facebook Causes, to lift up the work of United Way for Southeastern Michigan on the web. We're not just playing - we work with the very best to make sure that everything we do, including our web work, is the absolute best for the community.

In addition to my work on the web, I am active in many other facets of our organization. I co-chaired our internal campaign this year. (Yes, we run a United Way workplace campaign too.) I'm proud to say that our staff of 100 raised over $13,000 this year. I worked on the formation of our Diversity and Inclusion committee, served on our Employee Recognition committee, the CRM (Constituent Relationship Management) team, the Stealth team (a team dedicated to learning new Web 2.0 practices) and have served on many national United Way teams. In eight years I've cheered on marathon runners, participated in more than one United Way flash mob, hugged Jeff Daniels while dressed in a six-foot blue, fuzzy kangaroo costume, welcomed every single one of the 8,000 people that attended our 2005 Working Together Job Expo, gone for a week on end without sleep during Alternative Spring Break, played in the United Way kazoo band and my Fantasy Football team, the Dearborn Death Chickens, are currently in the lead of the United Way league.
 
I've watched the videos on the home page of our website 1,000 times over, but still get chills every time. And don't even get me started on the videos produced by our volunteers at U of M Dearborn's Campus Video Network during Alternative Spring Break 2008. I need a box of Kleenex to watch those because of all the good memories.

In case you haven't guessed, I am extremely proud of the work of my colleagues and our volunteers. I have worked with, and for, some great people in my time, but never have I been so in awe as I am at United Way. I am surrounded by hard-working, infinitely intelligent and passionate people. I can't wait to introduce you to them all.