Facilitating community impact

At the United Way, our business is in facilitating Community Impact! Community Impact is lasting change that benefits this amazing place that we all love to live, work and play in. We facilitate community impact in two ways – through consultation and participation.

In terms of consultation, we work with individuals just like you, throughout our region, asking them what really matters most in their communities to them – what are the most pressing issues that our communities face? Then this information is what drives our investment decisions after we run our Annual Campaign.

Secondly, we invite people to Give, Volunteer and Act in the United Way to genuinely participate in the Movement. While giving and acting are vital pieces of contribution and participation to our organization, I believe Volunteering with the United Way is what is crucial to our viability. Volunteers make up the majority of our organization – without them we truly wouldn’t exist! From our leadership volunteers at our Board of Directors level, Campaign Cabinet and Community Investment Committee, to our front-line volunteers on our Community Impact Teams and Special Event and Operational Support roles. Whenever I speak with one of our volunteers about why they chose the United Way to donate their time, there seems to be a common denominator with each of them – that they wanted to participate in something that can make a difference in our community and they see the United Way as doing just that. So, now we’re back to our business – facilitating Community Impact. We can only do it if people make a commitment to participate.

One of our volunteers, Dawn, shared some thoughts that really emphasize why choosing to volunteer with the United Way is important to her: “…(I) witnessed just how many local charities are impacted by the United Way…it inspired me to learn more and get involved …”

We would love to inspire more people in our community to Give, Volunteer and Act and participate in creating Community Impact with us – so please consider the United Way when you are deciding where to volunteer.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.