Jim Terry: Long-term investment offers great returns

Published 03/20/2010 in The Greenville News

In this age of texting, Twitter and continuous 24-hour headlines, where global information is immediately accessible by a phone in your pocket, it’s easy to get distracted by the demands of the moment and put the future on the back burner. 

Fortunately, United Way of Greenville County, its volunteers and supporters have a vision for what it takes to make a deep and lasting impact on our community. It requires a long-term approach with a concrete vision, thorough planning and targeted capital investments.

Take, for instance, Greenville’s downtown or CU-ICAR. These didn’t happen over night. They took vision, planning and appropriate investment to become the envy of communities across the country, and are now an essential marketing tool for our economic development.

The lessons learned from these successful long-range planning exercises could easily be applied to United Way’s long-range actions to improve the quality of life for all in Greenville County.

Two years ago, United Way began a focused effort on our community’s long-range needs when, in addition to its continued support of 92 programs and services offered by 50 local partner agencies, it established three new focus areas of school readiness, high school graduation and financial stability. By ensuring all children start school ready to succeed, all youth have the opportunity to attain a high school degree and all families have the opportunity to achieve greater financial stability, we can improve the quality of life now and, hopefully, reduce future needs for “crisis” services.

It’s an idea based on a simple business principle: Appropriate, timely investment will assure greater efficiencies now and pay dividends for our community in the future.

Nowhere is this message understood better than with the members of the Palmetto Society – United Way’s donor group contributing $1,000 or more to the annual campaign. The reasons why Palmetto Society members contribute are varied. Many of these donors, i.e. “investors,” give because they have benefitted first-hand from the foresight of past visionaries whose long-range plans helped make Greenville County the place where their businesses and families have been able to flourish. They understand the best way to repay those prior efforts is to reinvest in our community, and that the most effective way to do that is through philanthropic contributions to United Way.

Since our Palmetto Society was first formed in 1989, its percentage contribution relative to the overall campaign total has steadily increased, and 2009 was no exception. Forty-six percent of the more than $14 million raised during the campaign, or approximately $6.4 million, came from 3,604 Palmetto Society donors. That’s a 2 percent increase over 2008 numbers, and more than double what it was 15 years ago.

It’s an upward trend we hope will continue in the years to come as more and more in our community realize the powerful impact we can have on our future by investing in our community now.

Recently, in the global response to the crisis in Haiti, we’ve seen humanity’s great capacity for caring. While our local situation is nowhere near as catastrophic, the needs continue to grow to unprecedented levels in Greenville County. Our community has proven many times that it is capable and willing to respond during times of need, and we are sure that commitment will continue.

As the 2009 Palmetto Society chair, I want to thank our 3,604 members, and especially the 667 new members, for stepping forward and giving so generously.

With your help, and the support of all of our campaign’s 38,000 contributors, United Way continues to be able to provide funding needed to assist those in crisis now, while investing in future solutions.

Great work is being done right now on United Way’s three “stake-in-the-ground” issues, including development of a Childcare Rating Improvement System to increase the quality and affordability of early childhood care; expansion of the Graduate Greenville program targeting students at risk of not finishing high school; and the collaborative work of the Foreclosure Prevention Task Force, which is helping families keep their homes.

Thanks to your commitment, Greenville County will be a better place for us all. Let’s continue to invest in and protect the fabric of life so precious to our community.

Jim Terry is past board chair of United Way of Greenville County and was the 2009 chair of United Way’s Palmetto Society. To learn more about United Way of Greenville County or to get involved, visit unitedwaygc.org or call 467-3333.