We take pride in telling every donor their gift makes a difference. Thousands of people and businesses partner with us each year to invest their philanthropic dollars in community change. We can effectively impact the health, education, and financial stability of the community because these people care. Donors might each be coming with their own perspective and inspiration for why they choose United Way, but when they Unite together incredible things are possible. It’s our pleasure to highlight some of these different donor stories in our monthly spotlight:
From the business perspective: Chad Randick, Burke Corporation
At Burke Corporation, we are committed to being a model community partner.
As such, we have partnered with organizations whose values align with ours and our team members. The locally relevant and essential work throughout Story County that is done by the United Way gives us a great platform to impact many different communities where our team members live, work, and play. Over the past 3 years, our generous team has donated over $100,000 to United Way of Story County as we continue to embrace the sentiment that we are stronger when we LIVE UNITED.
From the budding philanthropist’s perspective: Chelsey Aisenbrey, Young Leaders Society Co-Chair
United Way is an asset to our community, offering support to organizations that make an impact at the local level. I appreciate the transparency and the trust established by United Way, ensuring my donation is spent clearly and properly, including giving me an opportunity to focus my donation on a specific area or organization that may be particularly important to me. Lastly, I am thankful for the Young Leaders Society which gives me an opportunity to see my philanthropy at work. I love learning more about United Way's partner organizations and discovering what I can do to help make our community and all of the individuals in it healthy, educated, and financially stable.
From the Tocqueville perspective: Roger and Connie Underwood, Tocqueville Society members
United way efficiently touches the lives of local people and groups that are in need of help. We value the local leadership of the United Way team of staff and volunteers as they carefully sprinkle our resources to selected groups. Our philanthropy goes farther by joining with others in the community to support those in need. United Way is first on our list each year as we plan our giving and will be for years to come.
From a Women United donor, ensuring financial education for low to moderate income women: Beth McNeil, Women United member
I give to the United Way because I believe in United Way and the good that it does for our community. Focusing my contributions on Women United is important to me because financial stability begins with financial literacy and UWSC does an excellent job of providing a holistic experience - meeting women’s educational and financial needs where they are. Not preaching, but teaching! My life has been both lucky and blessed and giving back to an organization like UWSC just makes sense. Why wouldn’t I want to support an organization that “leads the fight for health, education, and financial stability?”
From a donor committed to UWSC’s sustainability: Gary and Heather Botine, Endowment Builders
We have been long-time supporters of United Way since the late 1980’s through our employers. We choose to give to United Way because it is such an efficient way to make our dollars go farther and touch so many lives in need. United Way of Story County has a very unique model through the ASSET funding process whereby we can truly give to one organization and see that money allocated out to many other organizations within our community. We will continue to support United Way now and into the future.
Transformational change is possible. It starts with a community that is ready to band together its resources of time, talent, and treasure. Our donors are at the forefront of providing proven solutions to local issues. No other organization can monitor the changing landscape of human service needs and respond on their behalf quite like United Way can. We take this responsibility with the utmost respect to invest efficiently and effectively. United Way thanks every donor for the trust they place in this partnership, and we can’t wait to continue to grow our work together.