what matters.  
by Patrick Jinks

Over the past 3 years, United Way of Danville-Pittsylvania County has been building a new model to more effectively impact our community.  The process has led us through the implementation of program outcome measurement (requiring our funded agencies to measure and report on the results of the program for the people they serve) and the completion of a Community Impact Agenda (a strategic plan for future investment of donor gifts and other resources in our community).

The transformation to a Community Impact United Way is one that is inspired by a national movement.  United Ways across the country are coming to understand that in order to continue serving communities into the future, a new approach is needed.  Many United Ways are already experiencing success under the new model.  Many more are still only beginning to build the model.  While the national organization ( United Way of America ) provides leadership and guidance in transforming local United Ways , each local community must decide for themselves what their model will look like, and how they will operate to best serve their community.

For us, the term Community Impact denotes an enhanced way to deliver value to our donors and ultimately, our community.  It mandates that our role goes beyond collecting workplace funds annually and allocating them monthly to cover expenses incurred by a set number of non-profit, human service agencies.  Our new role includes coordinating any number of community resources to achieve measurable community-wide impact.  We will strive to convene established and new partners to solve problems at a community level.

Instead of having “member agencies”, we will have “impact partners”, and those partnerships will not be limited to a set number, nor to the non-profit sector alone.  We will strive to work together to improve lives across sectors by assisting non-profits to work more effectively, and partnering with the business and government sectors.  In this new model, collaboration is the key.  We cannot achieve community impact while working in silos.  We must create synergy and address issues the UNITED way.

The agenda is based on input from a cross-section of community citizens through nearly 20 focus groups.  It is NOT a list of agencies and programs we will fund.  In fact, the Community Impact model includes funding and fund raising as strategies, but does not dictate a specific group of agencies to fund on any regular, long-term basis.