Live Generously; Think Differently

About ten days ago, Seth Cohen, alumnus of the Atlanta ‘07 class of the Wexner Heritage Program and engaged member of the Atlanta Jewish community, shared some thoughts on the UJC’s National Young Leadership Cabinet Retreat that had just concluded. Today, an excerpt from a recent blog post, which (according to Seth) “gives me a channel to be constructive, while also being thoughtfully critical.  Hence…

In reaction to our increasingly branded world, I suppose it was inevitable that we would endeavor to brand the combined philanthropic experience and (at least cosmetically) reduce the essence of our efforts to a memorable catch phrase.  I realized this yesterday as I was sitting in my law firm’s United Way planning meeting when we were advised to use the United Way slogan “Live United” in our campaign.  Of course it got me thinking about our national UJC/Federation branding of “Live Generously” and how that slogan represents the way donors are approached by Federations. And what I think is this –

Catchy, but not convincing.

First of all, although the slogan’s strength comes from  its normative message, that message is also its inherent weakness.”

You can read Seth’s complete post, Memo to the (Federation) File: Think Differently, here.