SEPTEMBER ARTICLE

Supporting our Community’s Needs through Workplace Campaigns

Waco and McLennan County, we’ve been busy! Local companies kicked off their United Way Workplace Campaigns this month with several fundraising events and activities. At these events, several United Way designated agencies shared about their work and the impact of United Way giving for their clients. Employees of workplace campaign companies left these events feeling inspired to give back to their community by making charitable donations to United Way to support our community’s most pressing needs. Many companies match their employees’ donations, dollar-for-dollar, to make their contributions go further, for even greater local impact!

It is inspiring to observe the creativity that local companies put into their Workplace Campaigns, the generosity of our McLennan County neighbors, and to hear impactful stories about the commitment of community nonprofits working tirelessly on issues impacting our community! 

With deep gratitude, thank you to our Loaned Executives, Campaign Coordinators, designated agencies and funded partners, and the following companies who kick-started their workplace campaigns in the month of September: Waco Housing Authority, Holt Cat, Caterpillar, China Spring ISD, Baylor University, QuikTrip, and ATMOS Energy!

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AUGUST ARTICLE

These last few weeks have seen us working diligently with companies to schedule speakers from our funded and designated partners for their workplace campaigns so their employees have the opportunity to hear community partners speak of their impact to our community through programs funded by you!

Although how we play our role as convener, collaborator and funder has changed throughout the years, one thing remains the same: United Way of Waco-McLennan County is a group of problem-solvers and game-changers, working alongside community individuals, organizations and companies working to build a better future!

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JULY ARTICLE

On July 19, we held our annual workplace campaign kickoff with our supporting community members, organizations and companies at Topgolf. We happily welcomed our donors, shared in some good food, and a bit of friendly competition! (We’re looking at you, long drive competitors!) 

Our annual campaign events begin weeks before the official opening of campaign season on September 1st with our companies and organizations preparing for the work ahead. During these kickoff events, we share the current work of our funded partners, stories of impact in our community, and the importance of collective impact through these workplace campaigns. For us, collective impact is a collaboration of donors and individuals working together to raise funds for a measurable impact, for all our residents in our communities. It’s also about being aware and recognizing the community challenges we face such as a lack of access to high quality and affordable childcare, a safe space for crucial conversations for all residents, access to community resources such as mental health, educational opportunities, legal support, and financial resources in order to stay afloat in today’s current economy.

This is one of the many efforts that makes Waco-McLennan County so unique; our community members, companies and organizations invest in our communities for a collective impact to create a place where everyone belongs and has the opportunity to live their best life.

A warm thank you to our passionate community members and collaborators who graciously reach out to us to ask how they can help, who serve in our Loaned Executive program, board chairs, and impact committees. We can’t wait to share the successes our 100^th campaign year will bring to our community!

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JUNE ARTICLE

Campaign Coordinator Impact

Campaign Coordinators (CCs) represent one of our largest group of volunteers. They build a strong community at their workplace to ensure their individual organization’s campaign is engaging and educational about the programs we fund in our community. They are educated on our work and how our Community Action Plan informs our actions. CCs are responsible for helping to reach our annual fundraising goals based on a variety of factors that influence individual giving.

They attend United Way info sessions, serve as a liaison between company leadership and United Way Staff, develop effective campaign plans, recruit teams of coworkers to assist them, and hold campaign kickoff events. They also promote the campaign throughout their company and disseminate information throughout the year to their coworkers to ensure they know how their dollars are making an impact through United Way. Campaign Coordinators have infectious energy and passion that shines through their efforts each year during the Annual United Way Campaign.

Running an individual workplace campaign can be simple, whether it is run online or by paper pledge card. It can present an opportunity to get creative to encourage giving. We have seen so many companies thrive as their CCs set goals, create competition, host events, and sponsor giveaways. It creates a special opportunity for the company to get involved in giving back to their community. United Way also offers a unique way for everyone in McLennan County to be a philanthropist.

Our unique approach to giving, mainly through paycheck deductions, allows everyone to be a philanthropist and magnify the impact their dollars have on local nonprofits. A one-time gift can seem too large to come out of one paycheck, but being able to spread a larger gift over 10-12 months allows for even larger gifts to then be granted to deserving programs in McLennan County. We could not do this without our Campaign Coordinators.

They come from a multitude of company partners in McLennan County and several have run their individual workplace campaigns for years! This position affords them the opportunity to get their employees together and to think about how they are impacting the larger Waco-McLennan County community. In essence, our CCs are community builders at their companies who are helping their employees be better informed citizens of our county.

As we approach our centennial this fall, we reflect on the amazing campaign coordinators that have helped us over the years to invest over 100 million into the community. We could not have made it this far or funded the multitude of programs affecting long term change in our community without them and we thank them for all of their hard work! Now is the perfect time to get involved and be your company’s Campaign Coordinator if they do not have one already. It is a fun way to be a part of our goal to lift community voice to create a place where everyone belongs and has the opportunity to live their best life! We may be turning 100, but that also means an exciting future of serving our community for another century.

If you are reading this and think this could be a great way to get involved in our work supporting the McLennan County community, check out our Campaign Coordinator guide and/or email info@unitedwaywaco.org. We want your amazing energy and passion for this beautiful community that we call home so that we can continue to elevate everyone in our community to thrive. 

MAY ARTICLE

What is ALICE?

ALICE stands for Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employeed and represents those in our communities that earn income above the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), but less than the basic cost of living for their county. New data reflecting McLennan County ALICE levels was released in April 2023. The numbers reflect the most current data available from 2021. We dive more into the previous report, in an article released last year.

To create the ALICE Reports, United for ALICE, which originated from United Way of Northern New Jersey, has a team of researchers work with Research Advisory Committees composed of experts from partner states. This work is guided by their rigorous methodology, which is updated biennially with experts from across the Research Advisory Committees.

United for ALICE is a collective of groups working together to conduct research and produce change for ALICE populations in individual communities. What began as a study to understand the struggles of families in one New Jersey county, has become a body of research that has worked to increasingly shed light on a hidden population we now know as ALICE. After a decade of work, the spark ignited by the initial study has grown to include United Ways, corporations, nonprofits, and foundations across half of U.S. states in a grassroots movement to change the national dialogue about financial hardship. We are United for ALICE.

2023 Report Disclaimer

The data improved slightly from previous numbers, but that reflects tax breaks and government stimulus payments that helped to insulate many ALICE households from financial crisis during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now that governmental assistance has largely returned to pre-pandemic norms, ALICE households in particular, along with households in poverty, are struggling even more as economic variables continue to fluctuate.

By the Numbers

In the most recent report, there were a total of 97,065 households in McLennan County, a 4% increase from the previous report. Median Household Income was found to be $60,437 compared to the state average of $66,963. ALICE households made up 26% (25% in 2019) of McLennan County Households and households in poverty made up 15% (18% in 2019). In total, over 40% of McLennan County is earning less than the basic cost of living.

Highlighted in this report is how the cost of basics outpaced wages. Household costs were and continue to be greatly above the income earned at the FPL. Texas data shows the FPL income level for a single adult as $12,880 and $26,500 for a family of four. In the most recent report, the Household Survival Budget for a single adult was $24,516, requiring an hourly wage of $12.26. The survival budget for two adults and two children was $54,048. This could be achieved through two full time jobs at an hourly rate of $13.51 or one full time job at an hourly rate of $27.02. These numbers are almost two times that of the FPL and goes to show the range of income inequality in our county.

Waco continues to see inequalities distributed unevenly between area codes. Central Waco, encompassing 76701, 76704, 76705, 76706, 76707, 76710, and 76711 experiences some of the highest percentages of ALICE and poverty households with over 50% of those zip codes being ALICE or poverty households. These zip codes make up almost 74% of the population living below the ALICE threshold in McLennan County. The ALICE threshold is the average income needed to afford the Household Survival Budget.

United Way of Waco-McLennan County and its funded partners work to combat the issues that face ALICE households and to improve their ability to move past living paycheck to paycheck to a state of thriving. Beyond this report, challenges remain for ALICE households and there is evidence that the economic situation has continued to worsen for these households based on sustained high levels of food insufficiency, continued difficulty paying bills, feelings of depression and anxiety, and increased medical debt.

What can we do with the data?

These statistics reflect real people, and that is what this is all about — helping the people of McLennan County. There are many ways that this data can be helpful in not only addressing access to resource issues but other concerns as well. United Way of Waco-McLennan County understands that in order for our children to be well, we have to improve lives for the households in our area. This means partnering with and funding programs that provide affordable and quality childcare, safe and affordable housing, financial education and savings opportunities, and health care for working families. To learn more, visit United for ALICE or visit United Way of Waco-McLennan County for ways to get involved in improving the lives for ALICE households.

APRIL ARTICLE

Loaned Executive Kick-off

On April 12^th, we hosted the kick-off meeting for our 2023 Loaned Executive Program. We have an even more diverse set of participants this year with 15 of our local companies and organizations represented across a wide range of industries! Several of the members from last year’s inaugural program were able to return and four of them are serving as Team Leaders. Companies represented include the following:

• Alliance Bank Central Texas
• American Bank
• Atmos Energy
• Baylor University
• City of Waco (Public Health District)
• Extraco Banks, Waco
• Extraco Events Center
• HOLT CAT
• Home Instead
• McLennan County
• Pattillo, Brown & Hill, L.L.P
• Target Solutions
• Texas Farm Bureau
• Topgolf
• Waco Family Medicine
• Waco ISD

This year we are more focused on a team structure within the program. We feel that the comradery of a team setting and the support offered will be beneficial for this year’s cohort and helpful as the program continues to grow. Each team got together and came up with some goals for the next two weeks and ways in which they could best assist each other. We worked through introductions in a way that would help our LEs get to know each other in a unique way.

During the meeting, we introduced everyone through their favorite songs. So much can be learned about a person through the songs that hold meaning to them. We asked this year’s LEs to submit three songs that were part of their life soundtrack. There were a myriad of genres represented and lots of joy shared as we learned new songs and appreciated old favorites. It’s a thought-provoking question to ask…what would be on the soundtrack to your life?

Returning members voiced how they feel more prepared this time around because they learned so much last year. Our new members expressed their excitement to engage with our campaign companies and the nonprofit programs that we fund. There is an incredible need for funding in our community and our unique way of raising funds is still tapping the full potential it has. We received grant requests totaling almost 4 million dollars and so we are hopeful that with each year, we can get closer and closer to being able to fund every eligible request that we receive.

A big theme of this year will be telling our story and the story of our work in the community. McLennan County is a place rich with storytelling and history that impacts the stories that we share today. As our city grows, it is crucial that we continue to advocate for those in need and share the importance of our community-led approach to action in Waco-McLennan County.

We are thrilled about how strong this program is already becoming with help from our Board and the business community in Waco-McLennan County. We will be celebrating 100 years of service to the community later this year and that means this year will mark our 100^th United Way Annual Campaign. Starting the Loaned Executive Program has allowed us to be more attentive to the companies that we partner with to run campaigns while also more effectively sharing our story and the impact we have with the employees that give to the workplace campaigns.

Stay tuned to hear all about our Loaned Executives in our LE spotlights coming to social media near you over the next few months! Follow us on Instagram @uwwmc, Facebook @UWWMC, and LinkedIn @United Way of Waco McLennan County.

MARCH ARTICLE

The cost of housing in McLennan County places a significant burden on many individuals and families. Based on data available from 2015-2021, McLennan County has an average of 39% of residents experiencing excessive housing costs. This includes areas where excessive housing cost impacted upwards of 45% and even 58% of residents. The national average for that same time period is 32%. Excessive housing cost depicts households where 30% or more of household income is spent on housing. After the surge in inflation over the last year, as well as robust growth in the Waco-McLennan County area, it is reasonable to assume there has been some increase in those numbers, even since 2021.

As we think about child and family well-being, we realize that it is important for us to be aware of this problem facing McLennan County residents. We fundraise so that programs in our community have the dollars to support our residents when they need it. One of those needs is rental assistance. As housing costs increase, the dollars allocated to various rental assistance programs do not go as far. There is also a growing lack of affordable housing in the Waco-McLennan County area. Despite new projects to increase access to affordable housing, the problem is current and we fundraise to help bridge the gap in funding.

We also realize that there is a large gap in the availability of affordable childcare. Finding childcare that fits your individual needs can be hard enough without adding worries about affording that care. Our Child Well-being Report found that 42% of parents were challenged by having to be put on a waitlist for childcare. When a parent is trying to enter the workforce or access different resources, childcare can be instrumental in making that happen. There is a lack of available, affordable childcare in our community that makes this difficult. An important note is that quality childcare affords a family many opportunities (i.e., sufficient early learning opportunities, entry into the workforce, access to income and reliable health care) and understanding this can put us on the path to decreasing inequities in education, health, and income in our communities.

One McLennan County parent stated their view of the situation, saying, “There are resources available, but they’re not sufficiently funded or staffed, which creates disparities between families who can afford to pay higher tuition (for the) highest quality childcare centers… and families who can’t.” This is why we fundraise. We have identified programs that are already doing the work to expand childcare programs and availability in the McLennan County community. We are then able to fund these programs once they apply through our competitive grant process. Several programs that receive funding from United Way grants utilize it to expand their programs or to fund the trial of new programs. Without United Way funding and understanding of exact community needs, our community would not grow in alignment with the needs of McLennan County residents.

A family retaining housing. A family finding affordable childcare. A parent elevating their career thanks to the time provided by adequate childcare. These are the moments we give for. Join the movement today.

FEBRUARY ARTICLE

Our Loaned Executive (LE) program serves as a bridge between our workplace campaigns and the organizations that benefit from the dollars raised. LEs learn about United Way’s process for local giving having local impact and how our impact framework shapes our competitive grant process. Through this education, LEs have the opportunity to witness firsthand the good work that the programs we fund are doing in the community. During our meetings, we offer professional development trainings from established members in their respective fields. Trainings can include any development from project management and problem solving to fraud prevention and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

As a Loaned Executive, you participate in monthly meetings where you learn additional information about United Way, participate in team building activities and learn or enhance skills through professional training. Outside of the monthly meetings, you are interacting with 3-4 existing and new campaigns to grow company engagement and to share the mission of United Way. Each month, you will submit a recap of your communication to your Team Leader so that they can compile a communications report for United Way staff as a means of keeping everyone in the loop.

Loaned executives work closely with the campaign coordinators of each company to ensure that their campaign runs smoothly. We want to be a resource to bring energy and life to their campaigns. United Way has operated in Waco-McLennan County for 100 years and several companies have run campaigns for decades. The Loaned Executives have the job of helping United Way Staff and Board Members connect with each company so that the annual campaign is not just another box to check off. LEs bring fun new ideas and suggestions for ways to increase annual workplace campaigns. This is so important because this is about the long term success of Waco-McLennan County children and families.

We have also created this program to engage our business leaders with the nonprofit work happening in our community. It is a unique opportunity to grow your business connections while also having an impact on fellow members of Waco-McLennan County. Loaned Executives act as ambassadors for United Way, spreading the news of our mission. Without United Way, dozens of vital programs in our community would not have funds vital to their operations. United Way funding also helps organizations innovate and begin programs that go on to be successful and meaningful, attracting grants and funding from additional sources.

Loaned Executives are crucial because they are the boots on the ground. They are the volunteers, who are out in the community doing the work of spreading awareness. They are getting the community involved and talking about convening and collaborating on the actionable change outlined in our Action Plan. We hope that Loaned Executives find a renewed sense of belonging when they join our program and a new understanding of what it means to be a Wacoan and a member of McLennan County.

When you join the LE program, you are joining likeminded individuals who are part of companies that care about our community. Each Loaned Executive is able to connect with other peers in the program, and continued participation in the program will foster those connections and help grow your professional network. Find the 2023 informational booklet and application on our website and apply today! There is no better time to join the work that we are doing in our community than during our 100^th year of service to Waco-McLennan County. If you have any questions, please contact intern@unitedwaywaco.org or call us at (254) 752-2753.

JANUARY ARTICLE

Our Loaned Executives were focused on wrapping up campaigns this month. They have done phenomenal work in this inaugural year of the program through fostering relationships and working to make sure our companies have the resources to run successful campaigns. This year the program was filled with learning opportunities for United Way Staff and our LEs. We have been able to reflect and begin to solidify the framework for our second year of the Loaned Executive Program.

This program is to help foster the relationships between the business community and the organizations that need dollars to support their work. Loaned Executives are also a crucial part of how we raise the funds that are then granted out to organizations in our community. By having Loaned Executives as United Way Brand Ambassadors helping to communicate the importance and necessity of Living United in Waco and McLennan County, we are able to support more work in our community.

Our United Way has been focused on a series of strategic pivots over the past few years and the Loaned Executive Program is one of the foundational pieces of those actions. We are working to build the Loaned Executive program as a mutually beneficial relationship between McLennan County professionals, businesses, and nonprofit organizations. Over the past six months we have attempted to train and develop 13 professionals from McLennan County to work as liaisons between campaign coordinators and United Way staff. Our LEs have led to 4 concrete connections with new companies in our area and has allowed us to be more accessible and communicative with individual campaigns. We were also able to offer 4 professional development trainings to elevate our LEs skillset. As mentioned earlier, the program offered a steep learning curve, and we are confident with the feedback from this year, we will have a solid base to continue building the program.

Several of our Loaned Executives have expressed interest in continuing the program in 2023-2024. The LE program operates as a long-term opportunity for participants to build their experience and understanding of our community and the needs while also networking and forming new connections. The exposure to the work happening in our community is invaluable. So often our daily lives interact with people utilizing the assistance offered by countless nonprofit organizations, but unless we are the ones utilizing the services, we might not know about the work that they do in the community.

The abundant number of causes to support can be overwhelming and that is where United Way comes in. We amplify impact through our fundraising by combining smaller donations and then granting that money out to organizations that run effective programs to better our community. United Way makes it easy to give, and we are on a mission to spread that message. Local giving has local impact and change does not happen alone. Our Loaned Executives have seen the work that our funded partners do firsthand and are focused on increasing support that will benefit proven programs at our partner organizations to serve our community.

Our LEs will wrap up the program in February and then will have the opportunity to get involved with our Community Investment Councils (CICs). After seeing the work that our funded partners do in our community, several LEs have begun the process to be on one of our CICs. They remain committed to lifting our community voice to create a place where everyone belongs and has the opportunity to live their best lives. This is a movement, and we are just getting started. If you are interested in joining the LE program this year, please email us at info@unitedwaywaco.org.

DECEMBER ARTICLE

This month, our LEs were able to learn more about ALICE data and its growing importance at United Ways across Texas. Texas area United Ways have been at the forefront of seeing the importance of ALICE data. It refers to people who are Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed and seeks to bring awareness to the households that earn more than the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), but less than the basic cost of living for their county. People at this threshold are often people that you interact with on a daily basis whether they work at the gas station where you get your gas or the hotel you stayed at on a recent vacation. Even the servers you find at every restaurant may be a part of ALICE. They are hard at work and often have two jobs trying to bridge the gap from paycheck to paycheck.

The training was focused on data from the last report and hope for improvement remains low as inflation and cost of living has increased significantly over the past year. A new report will come out in the spring of 2023 and the impacts of Covid-19 and a slowing economy will be seen. McLennan County was found to have 18% of households in poverty compared to the state average of 14% and a median household income more than $10,000 below the state average. This data predates the pandemic and our training was focused on recognizing the data and how we can continue to use it to shape the ways in which we look to impact our community. 27% of households in McLennan County fall into ALICE on top of the 18% of households being at the poverty level. That means that almost half of our community members are struggling to make ends meet despite working hard to do so.

A big focus in McLennan County nonprofits and in the programs that United Way of Waco McLennan County funds is on helping people that are already trying to help themselves. ALICE households represent this especially as they are already employed, however, several factors come into play, including a limited amount of funds, leading them to make difficult decisions regarding their individual and family well-being.

The labor landscape is challenging for ALICE workers because a significant portion of full- and part-time workers are paid by the hour. These workers are more likely to have fluctuations in income and are less likely to receive benefits from their employers. Oftentimes, this will lead to ALICE households utilizing public assistance based programs like SNAP to help meet their basic needs. These households are then faced with a dilemma because they are looking to improve their situation and start on a trajectory towards a more stable economic position, but they are faced with “benefits cliffs,” a term used to describe a barrier for low-income families trying to improve their economic status.

Benefit cliffs occur when career advancement puts a family above the income eligibility threshold for public assistance programs. Due to the gradual or sudden loss of these programs, career advancement can actually worsen a family’s financial situation. A recent development to help with this issue is the CLIFF dashboard. The CLIFF dashboard was created in partnership with RAISE Texas and the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and stands for Career Ladder Identifier and Financial Forecaster. The CLIFF dashboard will help individuals understand which in-demand career pathways will allow them to overcome a potential loss of public assistance based on their income, region, occupation, and family dynamics.

Our LEs were grateful to learn about this data and are discussing ways to utilize it to help companies in our community understand equitable ways of helping stabilize the economic position of their employees.

NOVEMBER ARTICLE

In this season of giving thanks, we are excited to announce our partnership with Kendra Scott Waco to host a Give Back Event in support of the United Way of Waco-McLennan County. The event will take place in-store on Giving Tuesday, November 29^th from 4-7 pm. One of our LEs, Belinda Jennings, was able to reach out to the new Kendra Scott Waco along with some of our staff to build a new relationship. We have been hard at work planning for Giving Tuesday on November 29^th and are excited about being able to support a business new to our area while also raising funds to go back into our community.

We encourage you to put it on your calendar and join us in-store or online. There will be an online code to use if you are unable to go in store the day of the event. Check out our Facebook event and let us know if you will be joining us! We hope to see you there so you can find all that there is at Kendra Scott Waco. What better way to get gifts this holiday season than to give back while you are at it!

If you want to find out how your company could get more involved in our community and giving back, we can set up a meeting with one our local LEs. Send us an email at info@unitedwaywaco.org to get started.

In other news, our LEs have been hard at work as several of our workplace campaigns began in October and ran through November. At our October meeting, they were able to learn more about the impact that United Way is focused on having in our community. We specifically discussed our Language Justice work and our new impact framework for our grants. This information equips our LEs with knowledge about what is going on in our community so they can share with others what is happening in Waco and McLennan County. In November, we further discussed ways of engaging the community and business partners in how we are implementing the strategies outlined in the Community Action Plan.

All of our LEs are doing an amazing job even though it can be tough to connect with new and returning companies all while completing the normal duties at their jobs. Change does not happen alone and we are so thankful for their commitment to our community! Along with the monthly meeting in October, some of our LEs made it to the site visits we completed the third week of October with our Grants & Impact team. They loved getting to see the work that is happening in the community and the programs that are supported by local dollars through United Way.  

In the past two LE meetings we have had some great professional development sessions with Jay Mathis and Dr. Michael Godfrey. The trainings provided insight on how to maintain a healthy work environment and how to engage in open interpersonal communication, respectively. These have been important in helping to understand how individuals should match their communication styles to the person they are communicating with. It is an easy way to create an open space for communication when you understand a person’s strengths and they can be communicated with most effectively.

Our Loaned Executives have been key players in gathering new community support over the past few months. We have been working to begin some exciting new partnerships in our community. Waco is attracting a lot of new business and so it is important to continue to advocate for our community as new businesses move to town. Within our community, Giving Tuesday (November 29^th) is a day where we can commit to giving back as we enter a busy season sometimes focused on getting the best deal for the best gift. We hope that this Giving Tuesday you consider supporting efforts in our community to help the most vulnerable among us.

OCTOBER ARTICLE

The Loaned Executive team met in September for company assignments and professional development with Elaine Botello of Victory Employer Services. We focused a great deal on the ways in which LEs can support our campaign coordinators and advocate for ways to increase campaign giving. Over the past few years, the presence of special events during campaigns have fallen off. As we continue returning to normal, it will be fun to see the new ways in which companies can incorporate some fun events, like a chili cook off, into their campaigns.

Our LEs are enthusiastic and have been eager to learn about their companies and strategize with them. The Loaned Executive Planning committee has been a great resource to help foster ideas and answer any questions our LEs have. We are thrilled about what our LEs are doing and the impact it will have on our 2022 campaign!

They will meet this month to further discuss assisting our workplace campaigns while also gaining additional professional development from a renowned Waco native, Jay Mathis! He will share his secrets for building a healthy organization. Our Loaned Executive program is a great way to get plugged into the good work going on in our community while also improving individual skills. Check out the Loaned Executive Booklet for more information.

Our Annual Campaign officially launched last month, but October tends to be a busy time where lots of companies hold their kickoff events. We are coordinating speaker events at our different corporate partners where we have been able to also highlight the good work we are able to fund in our community by connecting with our funded partners.

With three months left in the year, we are counting down to the start of our 100^th year operating in Waco. Waco has changed a lot over those years, but we have always stayed committed to our mission to be a collaborator and convener in our community to pool funds as a way to better support our community nonprofits.

2022 has offered a more normal experience and we are hopeful that this year, we can grow our support for the nonprofits in our community that continue to do good work. At United Way, we lift our community voice to create a place where everyone belongs and has the opportunity to live their best life. It is a pivotal time where we can affect so much good in the world. Our community has spoken and now it is our job to convene organizations that meet those needs. We have already begun our work by partnering with organizations best equipped to handle certain action items. Follow along with the Community Action Plan to understand how we are creating the mechanisms to deliver change in our community.

SEPTEMBER ARTICLE

Over the summer, our United Way office worked to bring back a program that operates at several United Ways across the country and was once part of our programming at United Way of Waco-McLennan County. We realized we need to bring more people into the work that we do, so that we can continue to grow the team working for positive change in our community. Change does not happen alone and we are thrilled to be launching this program as a fun and practical way for business members of our community to get involved with United Way and the work we do. The Loaned Executive program brings business members from Waco-McLennan County under the roof of United Way so they can understand what we do as an organization and as well as what our funded partners do for our area. We lift our community voice to create a place where everyone belongs and has the opportunity to live their best life. In doing this, we want to continue to work with community members to make this vision a reality. Our Loaned Executives will bring new life and perspective to our campaigns, so we can continue to make a positive change to impact the lives of everyone in Waco-McLennan County. We kicked off the launch of the Loaned Executive program at our annual campaign training and kickoff event in August.

On August 17^th, we gathered several of the community members involved in our work and focused on “Throwback to Give Back.” As we approach 100 years of serving the Waco-McLennan County area, we wanted to reflect on our history and have some fun remembering the generations of McLennan County residents who have made our work possible. As a volunteer-led organization, without a community with a heart for service, we would not have been able to sustain our work over the last 99 years. Several of our Campaign Coordinators and our new Loaned Executives participated in our kick-off. The training was informative and helpful in spurring new ideas about how to grow campaigns as we continue to emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.

We are excited to have so many people invested in United Way and our community. The official Campaign Season began on September 1^st, and we will work to support all of our workplace campaigns through the end of the Campaign Season in January.

Remember, local giving has local impact when you give through United Way. Your dollars stay here and help find ways to improve the quality of life for children ages 0-5 and their families through our Child Well-being work. In addition, 43 local non-profits are also supported through designations and our grant program. For more information on how and why to give, visit us at unitedwaywaco.org.

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