United Way campaign gives us all a chance to impact lives

By Annette Allen

Originally published in The Greenville News (subscription required)

Last week, we officially launched United Way’s 2011 community campaign with the announcement that this year we will be shooting for our highest campaign total ever with a goal of $15 million.

During last year’s record-setting $14.7 million campaign, we saw first-hand how this community’s generosity can lift the lives of our neighbors. Unfortunately, there is still a tremendous amount of need out there. That’s why we’re once again inspired to dig deep, rally together as a caring community and raise the bar for another record campaign.

Over the next two months, approximately 700 companies and organizations across Greenville County will be working to help us reach that goal – a tremendous effort that depends on the caring spirit and generosity of nearly 40,000 people in Greenville County.

It’s a huge undertaking, and one that is driven by highly supportive and engaged volunteers at each workplace. I want to personally thank them for donating their time and energy to this campaign. Without you, we simply would not be able to fulfill our commitment to making Greenville County a better place for us all to live, work and raise families.

United Way of Greenville County’s annual campaign affords us an effective means to truly make a difference now and to have a substantial impact in shaping the future of our community.

Right now, United Way is carefully investing donor contributions in 87 local programs working to nurture children, help and encourage youth success, strengthen families and neighborhoods, improve our community’s health, and assist people in times of crisis.

These are the programs and agencies you depend on when you need new skills to help get a job. They are who you turn to when your family needs food to get through the week. They are the people who care and provide assistance when someone you know is being abused.

Supporting these programs has never been more important. With many of these programs and agencies continuing to see record demand for services, we must make sure someone is there to respond.

United Way’s second key strategy is eliminating future needs and strengthening tomorrow by building what we call a “Cycle of Success.” This is accomplished through a targeted approach on three priority issues: school readiness for young children, high school graduation for youth, and financial stability for individuals and families.

The basic concept is that when babies are taught to learn, they become readers. When those readers succeed in school, they become graduates. When those graduates get good jobs and create stable homes, their families have a bright future. And the cycle is complete as those families teach their babies to learn.

United Way is building initiatives and mobilizing partners and resources to tackle these difficult issues. Included in these efforts are the Institute for Child Success, a public/private partnership focused on child development, health and education; BOOST (Building Opportunities in Out-of-School-Time), which seeks to improve the quality of after school and out-of-school time programs for children and youth; and the Greenville County Individual Development Account (IDA) program, a matched-savings program to assist low-income individuals and families with savings for homeownership, education, or small business start-ups.

There is still much work to be done on all three fronts. These programs and initiatives would not exist and could not move forward without the generosity of the thousands of people and their companies who LIVE UNITED each year by contributing to our United Way campaign.

Last week at our annual kickoff event, we announced that employees at 29 local companies – our Pacesetters – have already pledged nearly $3.8 million, bringing us to 25 percent of this year’s goal. This is an incredible start to our campaign and we thank theses companies for their generosity and leadership.

If your company is not one of the workplaces running a campaign, please call United Way and we’ll help you organize one. If you would like to give individually, you can do that online at unitedwaygc.org.

There are also many other ways you can join us in making Greenville County a better place. We invite you to volunteer with one of our partner agencies, or with one of the many other great community organizations in Greenville County, by signing up with United Way’s Hands On Greenville atwww.handsongreenville.org. Hundreds of opportunities are available every month.

Bottom line, the community needs your support and mine. Every contribution, regardless of the amount, can impact lives for the better. With your help and continued unmatched generosity and compassion, I know we will get there.

Good luck to each of you in your campaigns! Thank you in advance for your care and support.