United Way Kickoff
United Way of Coastal Georgia president and CEO Virginia Brown introduces United Way ambassadors Alan Ours, from left, Paulo Albuquerque, Randall Morris, and Paul McKenzie during the United Way kickoff breakfast Thursday morning.
United Way raises about a third of annual goal so far
United Way of Coastal Georgia has raised more than 30 percent of its $900,000 goal for the 2018-2019 traditional workplace giving campaign, which began two months ago. “The good news is we are 33 percent of our goal, which is ahead of where we were last year,” said Virginia Brown, president and CEO of the local United Way, on Monday. The workplace giving campaign, which kicked off Sept. 7, typically raises the most money for United Way annually, Brown said.
Brown and Donna Leggett, director of development and marketing for the local United Way, are busy now making presentations to local businesses, encouraging them to donate. The presentations focus on the challenges faced by the community that United Way is fighting to address and provides statistics that capture the needs of this area. The money raised will stay local and go to nonprofits working to address issues of health, education and financial stability in the community.
More than 57 percent of low-income children in Glynn County and more than 46 percent in McIntosh County are not enrolled in pre-K, according to the presentation. Nearly 29 percent of children in Glynn and 34 percent in McIntosh County are living in poverty. Thirty-five percent of children in Brunswick live in poverty.
And in Glynn County, 22.6 percent of residents between the ages of 16 to 24 are neither working nor in school. In McIntosh County, that number is 29.2 percent.
Campaign ambassadors are featured in the campaign promotional materials, including billboards that can be seen now around the community. Randal Morris, public affairs manager for Georgia-Pacific LLC, is the chair of the workplace campaign.
This year, though, the local United Way has shaken up the annual fundraising effort by creating a second kind of campaign catered to individual donors, including small businesses.
“We also have another track that recognizes that we have individuals who really want to give by themselves,” Brown said. “… We have a really large small business community now here. With those, the owners of those companies have expressed a desire to have their own campaign.”
Rich and Joyce Seban are chairing the individual giving campaign.
“That will get really started probably in the next month or so, and that will run a year,” Brown said. “That will run for the rest of the year, until I would think at least next September. So we truly are year-round.”
Small businesses have changed in the last few years, and this new kind of campaign meets them where they are, Leggett said.
“We’ve seen the workplace is completely flipped upside down in the last years, and people are doing all kinds of different things,” she said. “That’s why this individual campaign will work.” The peak giving season may soon be approaching. In past years, Brown said, the United Way has seen the most individual donations be made during the month of December.
The annual campaign aims to do more than encourage individuals and businesses to donate, Brown said. United Way asks community members to become their advocate — and, in turn, the advocate of all the nonprofits United Way supports through its fundraising. United Way also asks people to volunteer.
“We’re the central volunteer center of the Golden Isles, and we want them to connect in a hands-on way to the work that we’re doing and to have that feeling that they are part of something bigger than they are,” Brown said.
United Way has changed up the way its volunteer center operates and now does more to customize the volunteer opportunities available to groups. Volunteers who call in to the center and ask do a project for a nonprofit are now matched up with the nonprofit that can best use that volunteer group’s skill set.
“It’s been very successful, and we have a lot of companies in particular that are viewing it as an extension of their United Way partnership,” Brown said. An example of this new kind of volunteer set-up will take place Thursday, during a “Day of Caring” for Coastal Outreach Soccer. Volunteers will complete projects to help complete the new COS Academic Center at Howard Coffin Park.
By advocating and volunteering, community members are able to help United Way work toward its mission of serving those in need locally.
And as the United Way works to reach its $900,000 fundraising goal this year, the organization is asking the community to donate.
“We are faithfully moving forward to find solutions to some really long-term and deep community problems,” Brown said. “We love this community. We think it’s beautiful and wonderful. But it’s not beautiful and wonderful for every single person. So we’re working to make that a little more equal.
