State of Local United Way
By Angie Matthiessen, Executive Director
This time of year, it hits like clockwork, the end of our fiscal year (March 31). Sliding into the end of set goals, one can experience an array of emotions. For almost all nonprofit organizations, setting a budget to align with mission, vision and dreams can feel scary, exciting and filled with promise. After ten years at United Way Charlotte County (UWCC), and especially in the last five years, I have learned that things can happen to change your initial thoughts and plans throughout the year.
Looking back over the past year, it has literally felt like a whirlwind. With the occurrence of three hurricanes (Debby, Helene and Milton), this year was no exception. I am proud to report with a small and mighty team, we did not cancel one event and in fact, we added many that were not initially planned.
Just in the last three months, we hosted 10 events, 21 from last April, including the Giving Challenge, Day of Caring and the inaugural Ageless United Lunch. Hosting a full day United at Work Summit on Mental Health was a huge aspiration and thankfully it was still held at a rescheduled date, a few months after the hurricanes. Next month, we will launch a series of mental health workshops to support our community partners as a follow up to the Summit.
Normal programming has continued as well such as the free tax assistance VITA program and the funding allocations process through the Community Impact Panels. The UWCC volunteers are simply the best, including three regular office volunteers who help us week after week and we are so grateful for this.
As mentioned earlier, UWCC had lofty goals moving into this past year, and while we have been still helping residents affected by Hurricane Ian, the disruption of three more hurricanes has truly impacted the trajectory of our general fundraising goals. Disaster relief funds have been provided, and these dollars are being invested with direct assistance and resiliency projects. Since October 1, $403,717 has been provided in direct disaster assistance for 300 households. The UWCC staff and board have learned this is the right work for us and have found a groove for what our response should be, just after a storm and in the timeframe after. In order, to do it well, focus from each team member is required in some fashion.
Disaster funds have been entrusted to UWCC from multiple sources – individual donors, United Way Florida, United Way Worldwide, Community Foundation Sarasota County, Publix, Charlotte County Public Schools, Charlotte County Government. The latter businesses have been to ensure their employees are cared for post-storm and we have been honored to steward these funds carefully for their workforce.
While this is quite remarkable and such a tremendous gift, our normal fundraising campaigns have been altered in the landscape of years of disruption. The historical function of seeking funds through employee giving is a model that has declined significantly in recent years. Those struggling in this challenging economy and even donor fatigue has set in.
In that evolution, at UWCC, we have heard the needs of our community, and we are here to serve. Our path has never been clearer. However, as many other nonprofit organizations can attest, these times are hard.
We are faithful to keep serving the community and are hopeful as we set our sites for this next year – may dreams be realized for each of you, for our partners, for every person struggling needing hope. We are excited and ready!
If you would like to contribute to the general UWCC campaign as we wrap up our fiscal year, I would be grateful. Help us end the campaign well with your gift today at unitedwayccfl.org/Whirlwind
For more information about United Way Charlotte County’s mission: Mobilizing the power of our community to break the cycle of poverty, please contact Angie Matthiessen, Executive Director. She can be reached at director@unitedwayccfl.org