•  UWGN and United Ways across the country are embracing the Community Impact focus put forth by United Way of America. New strategies are needed to change from the traditional UW (an annual fundraising campaign and distribution process) to an organization focused on creating lasting changes in community conditions.

•  Greater mobilization is needed on serious community conditions. No one organization or level of government can solve our major problems.

•  Competition for charitable dollars is much greater now than in past decades.

•  The concept of "one campaign for all" has less appeal than it once had.

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What are Community Initiatives?    

•  As part of Community Impact, UWs frequently take on special focuses.   Community Initiatives are overarching efforts that go well beyond the work of the Community Investment/panel process.  

•  Initiatives commonly can include issue-focused planning, assistance in writing grants to foundation and government funding sources, public policy advocacy, and public awareness campaigns.

•    Our first Initiative is Workforce Housing. Our involvement in this Initiative will continue for several years.   Other Initiatives can be expected.   UW may conduct more than one Initiative at a time.

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How will this affect agencies?  

•  To some extent, Community Impact and Community Initiatives change what UW does, but not at the exclusion of all existing agency relationships and funding.   Over time, however, agency relationships are likely to change.   Those agencies that become involved in a particular initiative may see funding increases.

•  With its shift to Community Impact, UWGN's Board of Directors decided to set aside 20% of 2004 General Fund dollars to the Workforce Housing Initiative. The 2004 Campaign yielded $858,400 in General Fund donations, which was about the same as the previous year. With 20% of that earmarked for Workforce Housing, the amount available to the Community Investment process was reduced by $170,900, leaving $687,500 to support programs of United Way participating agencies.  

•  Some funds reserved for the Workforce Housing Initiative support permanent and transitional housing programs through the Workforce Housing Fund. Agencies in that niche can apply for funding at any time.   Other funds are reserved for a revolving loan program that can help developers of workforce housing offset start-up costs.

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How did you determine that 20% of available General Fund dollars be put into one focus area? That seems like a lot of money from a pool that has been getting smaller every year.

•  United Way's new mission is centered on creating community impact by addressing the community's most pressing needs and dedicating resources toward resolving those needs.   After much study and consideration, the UWGN Board of Directors determined that 20% of available General Fund dollars from the 2004 Campaign be invested in an identified community need based on the community assessment process. In subsequent years, the Board of Directors deemed that 15% of available General Fund dollars be set aside for this purpose.  

•  Of course, UWGN continues its 75-year tradition of helping residents meet basic health and human service needs by funding programs in those areas in conjunction with community impact efforts.

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What are the next steps in the Workforce Housing Initiative?

•  UWGN has convened the Workforce Housing of Greater Nashua coalition, which includes representatives of corporations, government, chambers of commerce, banks, real estate and development firms, and other interests. The group, which has more than 30 members, represents the first attempt to bring such a wide range of interests together to address the lack of workforce housing in Greater Nashua. It began meeting in January 2005, and is focusing on two areas for the coming months: public outreach/engagement, and housing development.   The former includes reaching out to various constituencies such as corporate leaders, state legislators, developers, town and regional planners, conservation interests, and the general public. The latter includes addressing regulatory issues to help make development/redevelopment more feasible, and implementing "smart growth" construction/land use strategies among interested towns in Greater Nashua.

•  Since Community Impact involves more than funding programs, UWGN will be more involved in public policy, public awareness, and grant writing surrounding the issue of Workforce Housing.

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Does United Way have a plan to increase General Fund (GF) giving during the annual campaign?

UWGN has and will continue to promote GF giving as the best way to do the most good by making GF dollars available to our network of agencies that address the communities' most pressing needs and produce measurable results.   This process is one of education-education-education.   All of our campaign materials and videos will continue to promote GF giving and community impact results.   This will continue to be a challenge because many donors want to designate their contributions.