The New United Way

For over 80 years United Way has been serving Danville and Pittsylvania County by providing critical funding to many human service agencies that conduct a variety of programs that help people in unique ways.  United Way has worked under a model that brings efficiency to fund raising, and confidence to the donors that their contributions are helping many people. 

As government funds become more difficult to obtain, and as human needs increase, the need for an even more effective United Way is clear.  With so many non-profit organizations (the number grows daily), how can we be sure where to invest our time, energy, and resources?  United Way continues to be the most effective way.  One gift to United Way meets a myriad of needs. 

However, as your United Way leaders explore new ways to make an even greater impact, we are realizing the need to expand our partnerships.  This does not mean we fund more agencies.  It means we reach out to perhaps non-traditional partners to work with in the following ways:   

·        Needs Assessment

·        Setting measurable, reachable community goals

·        Acquiring and allocating the resources needed to achieve the goals (not just financial)

          We call it the “Community Impact” United Way.  The basic concept is simple:  Rather than continue to measure our success by whether or not we achieve our annual fund-raising goal, we begin to measure our success by the amount of impact our investments are making.  We have already taken the first step toward this new model by establishing new evaluation tools that measure our program’s outcomes – not just the outputs.  Outputs indicate the number of people served, or the number of hours, or sessions, or meals delivered.  Outcomes measure the change that occurred for the better in the lives of the served.

We are excited about the results of this year’s allocations process.  More than ever before, our agencies are communicating their true impact on the people they serve.  We are learning how to collect new data that can indicate our long-term success, and we are learning how to improve our programs by making changes when we fail to reach desired measurement levels. 

It is a work in progress, and we appreciate they many hard-working volunteers, agencies and staff for working together to ensure that our new direction brings the most promise and results.

In partnership with United Way to bring this new model to fruition are:

Averett University
City of Danville
Danville Community College
Danville-Pittsylvania County Chamber of Commerce
Danville-Pittsylvania County Community Services
Danville Regional Health System
Danville Schools
Evince Magazine
Future of the Piedmont Foundation
Institute for Advanced Learning and Research
Pittsylvania County Administration
Pittsylvania County Schools
Register & Bee
Star Tribune (Chatham)
United Way and Partner Agencies
Virginia Cooperative Extension
Virginia Tech University
WBTM / WAKG Radio
WDVA Radio

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