August 31, 2007
Our local United Way kicks off another campaign this week. It is hard for me to realize that my first United Way campaign was almost thirty years ago when I served as a loaned executive shortly after coming to Greenville to start my legal career. Much has changed in those thirty years, and so has our United Way.
Too often in the past, people have thought of United Way as the ultimate middleman, appearing in the Fall to ask for money, then distributing those dollars to deserving local agencies. The perception existed and in some cases still exists because it was true.
It was an admirable way of doing business, because many worthy agencies were receiving needed funds and contributor dollars were being used to help people in need. But United Way knew that it could do even more to impact our community. What it needed was a plan to determine our community's most important needs and a road map to guide how to strategically address them.
So United Way asked questions. Based on a comprehensive study that asked members of our community to identify the most critical issues, five areas of focus were identified: Nurturing Young Children, Strengthening Families and Neighborhoods, Building a Healthy Community, Helping Youth Succeed, and Caring for Neighbors in Crisis. By focusing on a finite set of health and human service needs, United Way is now working to "move the needle" on issues of concern in our community. That's the ultimate goal of United Way and its commitment to our community and its future.
For example, in Greenville County alone, 13% of all residents (52,150 individuals) fall below the poverty line of $20,650 for a family of four. Twenty percent of Greenville County adults (ages 16+) fall into the lowest two levels of literacy identified by the National Assessment of Adult Literacy. Approximately 16% of Greenville County's citizens have no form of health care coverage. Almost thirty percent of sixth, seventh and eighth graders scored Below Basic in English/Language Arts on the Palmetto Achievement Challenge Test (PACT) in 2006. This number increased to more than one of every three (37.3%) eighth graders scoring Below Basic in mathematics on the same test. These are examples of the issues United Way, with our community's involvement, is tackling. By developing strategies that address the underlying causes of these issues, the objective is not just to treat the symptoms, but to find solutions.
United Way cannot accomplish this work without our ongoing support. When we give to United Way, each of our individual gifts is combined with those of our colleagues, friends and neighbors. The result is an investment that is magnified and multiplied to do so much more than any one of us could do alone. That is a powerful equation.
United Way only invests in programs that truly impact an individual's life in measurable and definable ways. Its expertise in the critical issues important to our community allows us as donors to take the guesswork out of our philanthropy. By investing in United Way, we can expect a positive definable return. Together, we can do so much for so many, and impact what truly matters.
W. Howard Boyd is a shareholder with Gallivan, White & Boyd, P.A. and practices in the areas of business and commercial litigation. Boyd has been involved with United Way for more than 30 years and is the current chair of the United Way Palmetto Society Campaign and the incoming chair of the 2009 United Way Campaign.
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