Big Changes

May 14, 2008

Not your grandmothers United Way....

United Way of Northern Utah has gone through some big changes over the last year or so.  Bret Milburn, Richard Pfaff, Mary Colon, Deb Barneck, Savanah Cheever, and Gloria Kariya have all left after a combined sum of more than a half century of service. 

Leslie Herold led the transition from Allocations (the "Old Way") to Community Impact (the "New United Way.")  And Ben Johnson and Josh Pedersen joined the staff.

These outward changes have come both naturally as well as in reponse to some philosophical changes at the highest levels of United Way.

Today in the national Community Leaders Conference convened by United Way of America in Baltimore, Maryland, Brian Gallager, President & CEO of United Way of America articulated the new vision of United Way.

Although we were founded as a fund raising organization, he talked about changing times requiring bold reponses.  He said "we are not in the fund raising business, we are in the community change business."

He continued sharing that "advancing the common good is a social movement, not just a business plan."  And finally, he said, "we need to move to relationship management with our donors, not just transaction interactions with our donors." 

These philosophies give more depth, more substance, and much more drive to our fund raising activities - which will always exist - but also puts those activities into the perspective of being a more impactful community change organization.