Director’s Reflection

This plan represents a year’s worth of honest, hard conversations and dream casting.

It all started with our board retreat in February of 2023 and was continued throughout the year via focus groups and one-on-one conversations with key leaders in our community. By focusing our efforts on these measurable strategies, we aim to better live out our mission of improving lives by mobilizing the caring power of our community to advance the common good.

If you are a donor, a United Way champion, your support will enable the implementation of the strategies listed below. We will need a dedicated tribe of volunteers to live this out, so please consider getting involved at a deeper level. We’d love to hear from you. Once again, we sincerely thank you for making this work possible.

Goals > Strategies > Objectives

The plan represents a high-level snapshot - a roadmap to success. Each objective includes its target year for achievement. Beyond this we have developed detailed action steps corresponding with each objective. Each step is assigned to a United Way staff member and Committee responsible for regularly updating the United Way Board of Directors on progress. By setting these benchmarks we can now confidently gauge our progress at end of 2026.

GOAL 1: Improve Brand Strength, Awareness, & Relevance

Our Vision: United Way is recognized as the partner of choice for understanding and addressing community issues.

• Develop a comprehensive marketing strategy.
  • Create a marketing strategy with clear goals and objectives.
  • Review marketing strategy annually and build upon it as needed.
     
• Build on strategic partnerships that enhance our local reach and reputation.
  • Bolster operations for our non-profit partners by providing quarterly training options.
  • Strengthen local non-profit leadership teams via bi-annual Board Bootcamp cohorts.

GOAL 2: Diversify & Grow Revenue

Our Vision: United Way builds new revenue streams, strengthens its pipeline of donors, and focuses on future sustainability.

• Implement fundraising best practices to drive year-round engagement for individuals and corporate donors.
  • Complete an analysis of donors.
  • Streamline & strengthen donor communications.
     
• Activate diverse and sustainable revenue streams and minimize overhead.
  • Increase individual giving outside workplace giving.
  • Grow our relationships with corporate partners.
  • Maximize major gift/legacy planning efforts with the help of specialized consulting services or an experienced major gift officer.

GOAL 3: Develop a Strong Organizational Foundation

Our Vision: United Way’s governance, core operational capacities, culture and values create enduring success, enabling it to be efficient, agile, sustainable and relevant.

• Grow our financial excellence.
  • Complete a financial trend analysis, to more accurately anticipate and allocate resources.
  • Make cuts and grow revenue to bring overhead.
  • Create financial sustainability plans for Women United, Leadership Giving Society, and Success By 6.
     
• Foster a forward-thinking culture.
  • Survey donors, volunteers, and neighbors to capture feedback and inform future priorities.
  • Host internal United Way employee trainings quarterly.

GOAL 4: Enhance Our Equitable Community Impact

Our Vision: United Way advances equitable and sustainable solutions that address gaps and disparities to ensure that every person has access to the resources needed to thrive.

• Develop a Community Impact plan that reflects real-time local needs.
  • Update our Community Impact plan.
  • Review and update our Community Impact plan annually to ensure continued alignment with evolving community needs.
  • Complete an exploration of cause/research-based priority funding models.
     
• Promote inclusion at every level of our organization.
  • Grow our volunteer pool so that the racial/ethnic diversity of our community is represented across every level of our organization.
  • Host an annual grant training before opening our grants application, with an opportunity for further coaching if help is needed.
  • Share racial equity training options annually with board members and staff.