Frequently Asked Questions

What is Community Impact?  Doesn't United Way already make an impact in the community?

Throughout southeast Michigan, our community needs continue to challenge the capacity of the region's health and human service providers. While public, private and nonprofit agencies continually perform heroic work in meeting people's immediate needs, there have been few opportunities to address the larger, community-wide conditions that give rise to those needs, or to foster sustained community change.

In the future, United Way will continue to address a comprehensive range of basic needs in the community. At the same time, we will help the community address the root causes of social problems, and support targeted strategies promoting fundamental change.

Our community approach is moving from:

To This:

Why is a new approach needed?

United Way has always been about working to improve people's lives.  We just recognize that we have not done enough in our community to address the underlying causes of some of our most entrenched problems and the conditions that give rise to these needs in the first place.

What role will United Way play?

United Way will continue to raise funds. The annual Torch Drive will still happen in the fall. In addition, we are diversifying our sources of funding to bring in more dollars from foundations, government sources, and individual major donors.

Our role as a funder will also remain. We will continue to support programs and services that provide a "safety net" to people in our communities. In addition, some of the money raised will support innovative ideas - programs, collaborations, initiatives - that attempt to address the root causes of social problems that have plagued us for years.

Finally, we believe United Way has a third role to play: that of convener and facilitator. Because we have such strong connections throughout the community, we are in an excellent position to bring people together and help focus attention on the issues and challenges facing us, not just at the local level but across the region as a whole.

As a facilitator, United Way already works with nonprofit agencies to support  their work.. The George W. Romney Volunteer Center connects volunteers with agencies that need their services. The Nonprofit Facilities Center provides not only capital support but valuable training and expertise for organizations that need to expand, repair or replace the buildings they occupy. United Way's Nonprofit Solutions program helps organizations build capacity and work more efficiently. United Way 2-1-1 makes it easy for people in Oakland, Macomb and Wayne counties to get help or volunteer their services.

United Way for Southeastern Michigan will  continue to  to leverage the organization's resources with those of others in the community, convening expertise from business, government, education, organized labor, philanthropy, faith communities and the nonprofit sector to set achievable goals, develop measurable objectives, implement specific strategies, and achieve substantive outcomes that will bring our region closer to being the community we aspire to be. 

When will United Way's Community Impact Business Model be implemented?

We expect this to be fully implemented by July 2008. During this time, we will see a great deal of change as we seek to renew, redefine and re-energize our connections with funders, nonprofit agencies, citizens and organizations across the region. 

How will this change affect funding decisions in the short term?

United Way for Southeastern Michigan's partner agencies - the organizations which have traditionally received annual operating support from United Way - have been assured that, revenue dependent,  their funding will remain at current levels through 2007.  Organizations - partner agencies and others - in need of capital funding for facilities expansion should continue to utilize the resources of the Nonprofit Facilities Center.

How can you possibly decide which issues are most important?

Behind every move we make is one basic assumption: Our dreams - and our problems - are big enough to share. Some things can only be achieved in community with others. Going it alone won't get the job done.
This is why, between now and 2007, we will reach out to individuals and groups throughout all sectors of the community to discover:

• how people feel about the idea of mobilizing a regional effort to achieve a major social objective;
• what regional aspiration would best reflect our collective will, and galvanize widespread action aimed at substantively improving people's lives in southeastern Michigan;
• what barrier(s) people think are preventing us from achieving this desirable state of affairs;
• what would be an aggressive yet realistic goal that leaders and institutions throughout the region could work together to achieve; and
• what they could contribute to a concerted, systematic effort to achieve such a goal.

Our objective is to identify a regional aspiration that will:

• stimulate development of one or more strategic, region-wide goals addressing the root causes of community problems; and
• inspire widespread community involvement in devising and implementing strategies that will deliver substantive, measurable results within a specific timeframe.

To facilitate these conversations, we have developed a set of criteria that we are asking people to consider as we decide what issues we could tackle together. We believe that, in order to command region-wide support, we must choose to address problems that:

• Directly affect the lives of people in all three counties
• Stand in the way of progress for the region as a whole
• Resonate across racial barriers
• Have captured the awareness of communities across the region
• Have the capacity to leverage political will
• Reflect community will and priorities
• Encourage the community to build upon existing assets
• Reflect the interests and priorities of major funders
• Offer scope for cross-sector participation
• Invite the addressing of underlying causes
• Inspire a broad range of strategies from diverse constituencies
• Allow for the setting of realistic community-wide goals and  measurable objectives
• Be supported by empirical data
• Invite the use of existing best practices
• Lead to local and regional benefits that can be clearly expressed

What is the timeframe for these discussions?

The graphic below lays it all out. Note that all three phases of the process call for extensive dialogue with stakeholders across the community. By June, we will have finished Phase I: Coming Together and enter into Phase II Planning Together.

What if the issues raised are things like "racism" and "polarization"?

We are aware that there are a number of "mindset issues" that tend to hinder progress in southeast Michigan. These include:

• Racial/ethnic segregation, polarization
• Regional political/geographical divisions
• Sense of entitlement
• Lack of leadership
• Negativity
• Cynicism / lack of trust

While we could talk about these issues forever, we believe that they will only be overcome as people learn to work together to achieve a series of concrete goals. People learn from success. Our successful development of collaborative strategies to tackle distinct problems will empower people to take on larger challenges. So instead of listing the reasons why something won't work, we should seek to identify the positive state to which we all aspire - and then find ways to go there.

What will the funding process look like?

We don't know yet. We know that funds will be allocated to basic needs and community impact strategies aimed at the underlying causes of community problems.   We have yet to decide what percentage of funds raised will go to each of these areas. We suspect that an RFP or RFA process will be used to determine who gets funded - but again, we don't yet know which, or what it will look like. Decisions regarding such questions will be made in 2006 and 2007 after thorough consultation with all stakeholders, including our current partner agencies.

Will agencies that don't seem to fit with United Way's priorities automatically lose eligibility for funding?

Nothing about this process will be "automatic." Once we have identified our priorities as a region and together developed one or more goals, any organization, agency or collaborative group will be welcome to contribute. United Way financial support will be coordinated with roles that bring us into partnership with a broad variety of other organizations - government, faith-based organizations, arts and cultural organizations, business, organized labor - in order to achieve true community impact.

How can agencies get involved?

As it has from the beginning, United Way encourages agencies to be part of its planning process.  We welcome ideas that will help the entire community achieve the changes it wants to see.

What about United Way's own programs and initiatives? Will all of them continue as before?

These decisions have yet to be made. Some may, some may not. There could be consolidation and realignment among existing United Way initiatives, depending upon the focus that the community eventually selects. Again, nothing is automatic, and nothing should be taken for granted.