We create solutions to build a stronger Siouxland. We focus on improving education, strengthening financial stability, and making our community healthier. But we don't do it alone. We fund 31 programs with community partners who are engaged with us to advocate community-led solutions.
Yes we do, and you can find it here.
Giving to agencies is important because many programs are needed to help in times of crisis and need, but United Way is focused on getting to the root cause of why people face challenges in the first place. By giving to United Way, you can be sure your donation is invested in strategies to make a lasting change and that community volunteers are continuously evaluating these programs to ensure that programs our donors invest in are making a measurable impact in Siouxland.
Everyone in the community! United Way's holistic approach ensures that those who need a hand up the most will have access to the resources to build the necessary skills and improve their situation. Because this approach is different than a hand out, our entire community will benefit.
Siouxland offers a wide variety of programming to support local needs. United Way has developed a Community Resource Guide that can point you in the right direction.
Gifts to the United Way of Siouxland help fund 31 partner programs and services. Here is an outline of our funding process:
1. Total campaign pledges are calculated.
2. All direct designations to specific agencies are pulled out (any of our 31 annually funded partners can receive designations).
A) The designations are earmarked for each program and paid to the agencies on a quarterly basis. We do not take any administrative costs out of designations because we have our Corporate Champions program. The only reduction that is taken out is for employees who pledge via payroll deduction and then leave the company mid-year resulting in unfulfilled pledges.
3. We take all remaining pledges (campaign dollars that are not designated to agencies or programs) into our Community Impact Process.
4. Community Impact volunteers allocate remaining dollars to the 31 local programs based on the needs in the community. NOTE: These volunteers DO NOT see the designations that have already been made to the agencies. The only designations the volunteers see are when someone donates to one of our 3 Focus Areas: Health, Education, or Financial Stability. Those Focus Area dollars are directed at the specific group of programs that are working on these specific issues, and volunteers will allocate these dollars within that Focus Area based on where the dollars are needed most.
5. We have two groups of volunteers who help with the Community Impact funding process:
-Group 1 is a group of financial professionals (bankers, accountants, etc.) This group reviews the financials of each organization to make sure we are giving dollars to organizations who are being financially responsible.
-Group 2 is a group of volunteers who are broken into 3 teams: Health, Education, Financial Stability and each of those teams reviews programs in their Focus Area to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and make sure we are giving dollars to programs that are having the biggest impact possible on the clients they are working with.
Le Mars United Way has a different process to fund their agencies, which can be found here.
100% of your contribution stays in Siouxland. United Way has always been careful to maintain extraordinarily low overhead costs. Last year, our administrative costs were just 13%, well below the national average. However, in addition to being mindful of these crucial costs we have also implemented Corporate Champions, a group of local businesses that come together to cover 100% of our administration so that individual donors can know that their gifts will go directly to programming.
While keeping overhead costs low is important, we also proudly hold ourselves - and our funded partners - to high standards in other equally important areas of performance measurement: transparency, governance, leadership, and most importantly - results! These metrics are key when assuring donors of the quality programs and services being provided in our community.
Members of our community make up our Board of Directors and Community Impact Teams. These dedicated, local volunteers provide oversight to the management of our organizations, as well as make decisions about how donations are invested.
- United Way of Siouxland is a local, non-profit organization accountable to the local community..
- United Way Worldwide is the service and training center for United Way, supporting its 1,800 independent members with services that include advertising, training, corporate relations, research, networks, and government relations.
- Our local United Way pays a fee for these services (one cent of every dollar raised). The United Way of Siouxland, in turn, gets four times this fee back in campaign contributions and training from United Way Worldwide. For every $1 paid to United Way Worldwide, United Way of Siouxland receives over $3.75 in the form of donations from large corporations who support United Way's work throughout their service area. These donations are used to help support local programs and services.
No, United Way of Siouxland does not and has never funded Planned Parenthood. Each local United Ways has their own board of directors and funding decisions are made by local volunteers to ensure the values of the community are upheld.
Out of nearly 1,200 United Ways in the United States, only a small number provide support to Planned Parenthood. Nearly all of the funds are the result of specific requests from individual donors.
No United Way funds are currently used, or have ever been used to support abortion services.
Please call United Way of Siouxland at 712.255.3551 or email Heather Hennings (hhennings@unitedwaysiouxland.com), President of United Way of Siouxland.