Spokane County United Way

Donor Designated Gifts: Spokane County United Way runs a major fundraising program, the Workplace Campaign. Many of the donations to the campaign are specifically designated to qualified non-profit agencies. Acting as an agent, United Way ensures that these donations are collected and accurately distributed at least quarterly, under standards established by United Way Worldwide. The Organization collected and distributed $557,158 related to this campaign during the fiscal year. The Organization charged and collected processing fees for administering donations in the amount of $34,896 during the fiscal year.

Health: Funding is provided to local impact partners for programs directed at improving the health and safety of families in Spokane County, WA. Spokane County United Way provides financial support to local organizations that focus on preventing or mitigating the impact of child abuse, child neglect, domestic violence, mental illness, and substance abuse.

Education: Funding is provided primarily to local impact partners as part of the organizations goal of cutting educational achievement gaps in half, focusing resources on children and youth who are low-income, racial/ethnic minorities, and/or have special needs. Spokane County United Way is involved in providing over 14,251 community members access to bilingual trail markers through Born Again Learning Trails and 7,400 children under the age of 5 access to 1 free book every month through the Dolly Parton Imagination Library Foundation.

Financial Stability: Funding provided to community agencies and community members for programs that support improving the financial stability of low-income households in Spokane County, WA, especially low-income families with children.

Community Planning & Capacity: Staff participated in community collaborations to improve cultural competency, reduce youth and family homelessness, improve access to medical and dental services for low-income populations, reduce the impact of adverse childhood experiences, and improve the local early learning infrastructure.

Excelerate Success: Excelerate Success addresses the impacts of racism, particularly structural racism. The initiative seeks to build community by promoting collaboration among Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) and white people in Spokane County as well as among people with other marginalized identities. Excelerate Success has 3 core strategies: racial affinity groups; trainings led by impacted communities; and annual community learning events.

Volunteer Services: The organization supports individual, group, and corporate volunteer engagement as a strategy to fulfill its mission. To support its financial stability work, Spokane County United Way promoted a free self-filing tool, www.MyFreeTaxes.com. Members of the Emerging Leaders Society contributed talent and 170 volunteer hours to projects in the community with local non-profit agencies. In addition, Spokane County United Way maintained a web-based platform, www.volunteerspokane.org, which served as a free resource to match community volunteers with opportunities at local nonprofit organizations. Spokane County United Way manages the selection and support of AmeriCorps VISTA projects and members in Spokane County in coordination with Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS).

Labor Relations: Spokane County United Way Labor Services works with the labor community to educate interested members about available health and human care services, recruit volunteers for food drives, and recruit and place members of organized labor with volunteer opportunities in human and health care organizations.

Homeless Initiative: Spokane County United Way partners with A Way Home Washington to help participating communities improve their data collection methods, advocate for legislative change, develop partnerships with systems and service providers, and implement projects that improve access to services and lead to equitable outcomes for all young people. Building on the success of the Anchor Community Initiative, United Way is launching Built for Zero initiative with Community Solutions; a new effort to support homeless veterans and chronically homeless adults. This work is supported by funding United Way received from the Kaiser Permanente Foundation. Spokane County United Way joined the Built for Zero collaborative which is made up of more than 90 communities that have committed to measurably ending homelessness, one population at a time. Using data, communities have changed how local homeless response systems work and the impact they can achieve. Fourteen of the collaborative communities have ended homelessness for a population by reaching a standard called functional zero. More than half have achieved reductions in the number of people experiencing chronic and veteran homelessness.