Meeting Sponsor for Oct. 10, 2011 - Steve Heath

Like so many other organizations, your local United Way has evolved in response to changing needs and desires of its customers (donors). While the old “community chest” model served us well for decades, it did not meet the needs of today’s donor because it did not produce measurable results. So ours was among the first United Ways in the nation to modify its funding process and focus on making grants to trusted partner agencies to do things like improve third grade reading scores with a goal of increasing high school graduation rates, enhance financial literacy with a goal of improving household financial stability and getting teens and “tweens” to be more active and make better life choices with a goal of reducing obesity in the region. We’re investing at least $500,000 a year in each of those efforts over the next decade. We invite Rotary and Rotarians to partner with us wherever it makes sense.