[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MPZTdJaMoiY[/youtube]
United Way for Greater Austin has been in this community since 1924 – committed to making Austin greater by building philanthropy and running strategic programs. In the presentation above, Debbie Bresette, our president since 2009, breaks down how we do it:
- To build philanthropy, we run employee campaigns, giving everyone in our community who earns a paycheck the opportunity to give back. We also coordinate volunteer efforts because we believe giving your time is valuable as well, and we work to inspire individual giving because we know we are all richer when we give back.
- Last year, we raised more than $16M for nonprofit organizations and coordinated nearly 100,000 hours of volunteering. Of that fundraising, donors entrusted $5.1M to our organization – and we put that giving to work for Greater Austin.
- In our strategic programs, se support young children through Success By 6, middle school students through Target Graduation and families through Financial Opportunity, and we provide an easy way to connect to services and resources through the Navigation Center. But we also know that it takes a village – for children to succeed, they need parent support, for families to thrive, they need quality education for their children. So our programs are structured to create wrap-around services.
- Our work is coordinated, knowing that supporting one student can be a key first step to improving the trajectory of a whole family. It’s also targeted in areas that have the highest needs, innovative (because we keep an eye on the landscape of services and fill gaps) and cost-effective, because we leverage our relationships with businesses, nonprofits and decision makers.
- Through strategic grants, expert staff support and professional services, we invest $4.9M in our community.
As our impact continues to grow, our work inspires even more philanthropy, creating a positive cycle that makes all of us greater. We believe that it’s all of this – smart children, happy students, strong families, dedicated volunteers and giving neighbors – that help our community thrive, that it’s our sense of community that truly makes Austin greater.