United Way campaign seeks to spark innovation

Like the reemergence of flare-leg jeans, it seems everything old is new again – and the United Way of the Ozarks’ annual campaign is no exception.

The organization was established in 1930 as the Community Chest, a term memorialized on Monopoly boards but otherwise lost to history. But if President and CEO Greg Burris has his way, there will be nothing outdated about the nonagenarian organization, which kicked off its annual workplace campaign this month.

“This year we’re changing everything, and not just because of the pandemic,” he said.

The biggest change United Way is making is in the way it divvies up funds received from employees of the nearly 300 workplaces that give annually through payroll deduction.

Donors always have had the option of earmarking funds either toward specific United Way partner agencies, like the American Red Cross of Southern Missouri, Boy Scouts of America Ozark Trails Council or Community Partnership of the Ozarks Inc., or to the United Way’s community investment fund.

Until this year, applications were evaluated generally on their own merit, but in the upcoming funding round, there’s a new calculation that, in part, rewards innovation.

Through the new plan, 60% of United Way’s community investment dollars will be dedicated to upstream projects that address root causes of social issues in the community with the goal of helping individuals and families become self-sufficient. Barriers to self-sufficiency may include factors like a lack of reliable transportation, affordable child care, safe and stable housing, workforce training, educational support or access to health and wellness resources.

“There are three pillars: education, health and financial stability,” Burris said, adding that without those three areas under control, it’s impossible to achieve consistent quality of life.

Another 30% of community investment funding will go toward safety net programs – those life-sustaining connections that address needs like hunger, emergency shelter, child abuse and neglect, and response to a natural disaster.

“We will always have families in crisis,” Burris said.

It is the final 10% of community investment funding that showcases the biggest shift in United Way’s campaign: an innovation fund. Agencies submitting funding proposals will be scored in part on their entrepreneurial and competitive spirit. Proposals are sought to provide new creative, scalable solutions for either upstream causes of social issues or safety net needs. Innovation funding will target new or emerging need in the community or a new method to address an existing need.

“Think ‘Shark Tank,’” Burris said. “The whole nonprofit sector doesn’t feel like they have license to be creative and innovative, but we’re going to encourage them to think creatively and innovatively.”

Old problems sometimes need new solutions, by Burris’ logic. Agencies that have long been funded through United Way may feel the pressure to keep doing what they are doing if they are to maintain that funding stream. Prioritizing innovation can help to provide new ways of helping meet community need.

Burris added that United Way funds projects, not agencies.

“We are opening up that process,” he said. “We really have funded the same set of nonprofit partners for six to seven years.”

Burris said he has heard from more than 20 nonprofits that have contacted him and asked how they can become a United Way agency.

“We really haven’t had an on-ramp for that,” he said.

Innovative proposals could be the key to this sort of expansion, according to Burris.

Gary Gibson, general manager of City Utilities of Springfield, is one co-chair of this year’s membership campaign. Gibson said his employees relish the chance to be involved with the workplace campaign and to try to top their contributions each year.

“I see how much my co-workers enjoy being involved with the campaign and the pride they get out of it,” Gibson said. “It keeps them engaged.”

With 950 employees, and 606 of these participating in the United Way campaign in 2019, the last year for which numbers were available, City Utilities has one of the larger campaigns. “We always have really good participation,” Gibson said. “We have fun around an event.”

Jena Holtberg-Benge is general manager of operations for John Deere Reman, which has 432 employees locally and had a 47% participation rate in 2020. She said she is a longtime fan of United Way, and she loves the new focus on innovation.

“The fact that they provide that leadership, the ability to convene the right resources and the right agencies to solve problems for communities that we’re in here in the Ozarks – it’s really powerful,” Holtberg-Benge said.

This year’s campaign goal is $2.75 million. In 2020, the campaign took in nearly $2.5 million, coming just 1% shy of its overall goal, despite challenges posed by the pandemic, according to Rachael Walsh, United Way’s vice president of resource development. In 2019, the campaign raised just over $2.5 million.

Another innovation is called Community Engagement in a Box.

“This is unique to us – we’re not copying off of anyone else,” Burris said.

With the help of SMC Packaging Group, United Way created a box filled with information about ways companies can engage in the community to help those in need.

“The idea here is that the number one pain point when we talk to CEOs is talent attraction and retention,” Burris said. “Our role in this is a little different than the chamber, city or any other entity. We think our sweet spot is this idea that by engaging employees in a community, you can make them sticky – you can help with retention of talent.”

Burris says studies indicate community engagement is important to workers, and so is a company’s brand and reputation in the community. Additionally, volunteerism can help employees sharpen additional skills, making it a winning proposition for everyone involved.

This is especially true for younger members of the workforce. The executive training organization Center for Creative Leadership reports a survey of 25,000 millennial workers showed that they want their work to be interesting and meaningful, and they value social responsibility initiatives. Almost 85% of millennials believe making a positive difference in the world is more important than professional recognition, CCL research shows.

“There’s all this research that shows that employee community engagement is a tool in our toolbox that we haven’t been using as much,” Burris said. “It’s counterintuitive in a tight labor market, but if you want to retain the talent you have, this is a good way of doing it. When you allow your employees to engage in community, it increases pride in the employer, loyalty to the employer – it improves their health, and they come back with new skills.”

Walsh said more prospective employees are evaluating workplaces in part based on how they contribute to the community.

“I think it’s crucial for employers to start seeing that the labor curve is inverting,” she said. “They’re going to have to do things to recruit new talent.”

Community Engagement in a Box is available to any employer that is interested in learning more about how to get involved in the United Way mission: to improve lives by raising funds and uniting support around the communities’ critical needs and red flags.