UNITED WAY OF THE NEW RIVER VALLEY
Give. Advocate. Volunteer.
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
One of our main focus areas is Strengthening Families and Youth, which includes helping students receive school supplies their parents may not be able to afford (in turn, it helps alleviate the schools need for more school supplies for students who do not have them). Another focus area is Promoting Self-Sufficiency, which includes helping individuals find jobs, giving them emergency needs such as food, clothing and shelter. Our final focus area is Health and Crisis Intervention, which, includes giving diapers to parents who need them and referring individuals to partner agencies that are more adept to handle it.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Community Investment
Our United Way's community investment goal is to help enable the New River Valley's community human service system respond to local family, youth, and individual's most important needs. UWNRV has selected three areas of need - Strengthening Families & Youth, Increasing Self-Sufficiency, and Health & Crisis Intervention - in our community to impact with our Community Investment program. By investing local donor funds into these areas of need, UWNRV intends to help the most vulnerable, interrupt problem cycles, and make our community stronger for the future.
Stuff the Bus
Stuff the Bus helps qualifying children & youth be ready for the start of a new school year with a new backpack of school supplies and confidence. Working with local businesses and the general public, school supplies are collected and disbursed in Montgomery and Floyd counties, and the City of Radford.
Technical Assistance to Local Non-Profits
UWNRV provides information and technical assistance to local non-profits who have questions about specific non-profit issues, other area services or agencies, or who want to discuss potential collaborations.
Day of Caring
Local area volunteers do one day volunteer projects for local non-profit agencies. projects may include: reading to children in low income day-care, serving meals at a food kitchen, painting, yard-work, general cleaning, computer repair, etc.
Emergency Food Pantry
Provide emergency food for individuals/families in crisis that cannot (for various reasons) or have not been helped by any other food pantry, and are in emergency need of food. Also provides limited supplies of baby formula, food, and diapers when in stock. While families are in office, UWNRV also asks if any other assistance is needed, and provides information or guidance on how/where those resources can be accessed as well.
Food, Clothing & Need Drives
Collection of Food, Clothing & Special Needs. Examples: snack food for school age when they get home from school, coats for children and youth, coats for adults, diapers, formula, baby food.
Information and Referral Services (I&R)
UWNRV provides information and referral services to citizens of the New River Valley who are in need of information, assistance or help, but do not know who to call, eligibility criteria, or how to access services. Limited case management is provided when necessary.
FamilyWize Prescription Discount Cards
Distribution of Familywize Prescription Cards through local school systems, doctor offices, clinics, health agencies, businesses, and general community.
Emergency Food & Shelter Program (EFSP)
UWNRV administers the EFSP program for the jurisdictions of Montgomery County, Floyd County, and Radford City . These funds go to programs specifically addressing emergency food and shelter needs.
Holiday (Thanksgiving & Christmas) Meal Assistance
Eligible families and individuals receive a Thanksgiving or Christmas meal package/box with all the holiday essentials including a turkey or ham (or gift card to purchase one). Families take home the food and prepare their very own home-cooked meal without the extra expense burden.
Toys From the Heart
An emergency assistance program that provides gifts to children & youth ages 18 and under or with an intellectual disability who have not been served by other local Christmas Assistance programs due to unforeseen issues, i.e. taking in an additional child due to crisis, recent job loss, etc.
United Way Christmas Family Assistance Program (Elves United)
This program matches local churches, companies, or groups with families in need of major assistance due to a critical family emergency in the past year. Emergencies typically include one or more of the following: the loss of a home through disaster, major medical issues, abandonment, and other serious extenuating circumstances. Each case is referred to UWMRF by Social Service departments or other outreach organizations that work closely with families. Families are fully served and receive household items, clothing, food, and other gifts.
Gifts In Kind
Collect, repair/refurbish, and distribute donated goods from businesses, public, and partnerships to local non-profit organizations.
VolunteerNRV
VolunteerNRV is the Volunteer Center for the five-jurisdiction New River Valley area. It connects non-profits and other groups that utilize volunteers with youth, citizens, and groups who want to volunteer their services.
Where we work
External reviews
Videos
Goals & Strategy
Learn about the organization's key goals, strategies, capabilities, and progress.
Charting impact
Four powerful questions that require reflection about what really matters - results.
What is the organization aiming to accomplish?
UWNRV's vision is to help enable the New River Valley's community human service system respond to local family, children, and individual's most important needs. Our United Way has selected three primary impact areas (Health & Crisis Intervention, Self-Sufficiency, and Strengthening Families & Youth) in our community to impact through all our programs. By investing our resources into these areas of need, our United Way intends to help the most vulnerable, interrupt problem cycles, and make our community stronger for the future.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
There are several strategies UWNRV employs to stay on mission and vision.
1) Stay within the boundaries of our three stated impact areas; any new programs funded, or undertaken need to fall under one of the three primary impact areas.
2) Communication with all volunteers and the general public regarding the impact and effectiveness of funded and sponsored programs - help them understand how much of a life-changing difference these programs can make in someone's life.
3) Provide multiple venues of opportunity for people and businesses to connect with United Way's mission and participate in program/s.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
1) Experienced, delineated staff with assignments in specified areas, yet conducts itself as a team.
2) Board and Team structure designed to fit the evolving needs of the organization; the organization's strength is in its volunteer teams and this is utilized.
3) The flexibility of the organization to evolve and change to respond to its community and needs.
4) Excellent software tools, social media, policies, and other organizational tools that give the organization a solid foundation to work from.
5) Broad support of the business community and non-profit community.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
The organization is accomplishing its mission of connecting people and resources to improve lives in the New River Valley. While all of our endeavors are collaborative - involving volunteer, business, and other non-profit partners - where it is experiencing the most growth is with collaborative programs such as Stuff the Bus, the Holiday Meal Programs, Toys from the Heart, Elves United, Information & Referral, and the Emergency Food Pantry. Our largest program, volunteer-led Community Investment, raised and pledged support of approximately $360,000 in 2015-2016 to both partner and non-partner non-profits ($325,000 for partner non-profits). What we have not accomplished is increasing this amount to a level where our volunteers could fund programs to function more effectively for our community. Other programs remain vital to the community and while not growing, are maintaining their effectiveness such as VolunteerNRV, Emergency Food & Shelter Program, Gifts in Kind, Needs Drives, FamilyWize Prescription Discount cards, and Technical assistance to local non-profits. In terms of funding value, in 2015-2016, EFSP put an additional $42,000 in funds into our community, and Gifts In Kind another $117,305 in resources across programs as well.
How we listen
Seeking feedback from people served makes programs more responsive and effective. Here’s how this organization is listening.
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How is your organization using feedback from the people you serve?
To identify and remedy poor client service experiences, To identify bright spots and enhance positive service experiences, To make fundamental changes to our programs and/or operations, To inform the development of new programs/projects, To identify where we are less inclusive or equitable across demographic groups, To strengthen relationships with the people we serve, To understand people's needs and how we can help them achieve their goals
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Which of the following feedback practices does your organization routinely carry out?
We take steps to get feedback from marginalized or under-represented people, We aim to collect feedback from as many people we serve as possible, We take steps to ensure people feel comfortable being honest with us, We look for patterns in feedback based on demographics (e.g., race, age, gender, etc.), We look for patterns in feedback based on people’s interactions with us (e.g., site, frequency of service, etc.), We engage the people who provide feedback in looking for ways we can improve in response, We act on the feedback we receive, We tell the people who gave us feedback how we acted on their feedback, We ask the people who gave us feedback how well they think we responded
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What challenges does the organization face when collecting feedback?
It is difficult to get the people we serve to respond to requests for feedback, The people we serve tell us they find data collection burdensome, It is difficult to find the ongoing funding to support feedback collection, Staff find it hard to prioritize feedback collection and review due to lack of time
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
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- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
Connect with nonprofit leaders
SubscribeBuild relationships with key people who manage and lead nonprofit organizations with GuideStar Pro. Try a low commitment monthly plan today.
- Analyze a variety of pre-calculated financial metrics
- Access beautifully interactive analysis and comparison tools
- Compare nonprofit financials to similar organizations
Want to see how you can enhance your nonprofit research and unlock more insights? Learn More about GuideStar Pro.
UNITED WAY OF THE NEW RIVER VALLEY
Board of directorsas of 02/01/2024
Brandon McSheehy
Universal Fiber Systems LLC
Dr. Kris Westover
Mountain Empire Community College
Paula Dawson-Downs
Radford University
Lucy Hochstein
Retired
Alan Jones, Jr.
Alpha Metallurgical Resources
Cameron Bell
Penn Stuart
Todd Asbury
New Peoples Bank
Haskel Bledsoe
Food City
Dennis Carter
Smyth County Superintendent
Whitney Czelusniak
American Electric Power
Stacey Ely
Ballad Health
Donna Henry
UVA-Wise
Kalen Hunter
Go Virginia, UVA-Wise
Rick Nunley
Universal Fiber Systems, LLC
Andre Richmond
Virginia Department of Social Services
AJ Robinson
Tazewell County
Chuck Slemp
Chief Deputy Attorney General of Virginia
Jonathan Sweet
Pulaski County
Chad Whittington
Mohawk Industries
Board leadership practices
GuideStar worked with BoardSource, the national leader in nonprofit board leadership and governance, to create this section.
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Board orientation and education
Does the board conduct a formal orientation for new board members and require all board members to sign a written agreement regarding their roles, responsibilities, and expectations? Yes -
CEO oversight
Has the board conducted a formal, written assessment of the chief executive within the past year ? Yes -
Ethics and transparency
Have the board and senior staff reviewed the conflict-of-interest policy and completed and signed disclosure statements in the past year? Yes -
Board composition
Does the board ensure an inclusive board member recruitment process that results in diversity of thought and leadership? Yes -
Board performance
Has the board conducted a formal, written self-assessment of its performance within the past three years? Yes
Organizational demographics
Who works and leads organizations that serve our diverse communities? Candid partnered with CHANGE Philanthropy on this demographic section.
Leadership
No data
Race & ethnicity
No data
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 08/15/2022GuideStar partnered with Equity in the Center - an organization that works to shift mindsets, practices, and systems to increase racial equity - to create this section. Learn more
- We review compensation data across the organization (and by staff levels) to identify disparities by race.
- We analyze disaggregated data and root causes of race disparities that impact the organization's programs, portfolios, and the populations served.
- We disaggregate data to adjust programming goals to keep pace with changing needs of the communities we support.
- We employ non-traditional ways of gathering feedback on programs and trainings, which may include interviews, roundtables, and external reviews with/by community stakeholders.
- We disaggregate data by demographics, including race, in every policy and program measured.
- We have long-term strategic plans and measurable goals for creating a culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.
- We have a promotion process that anticipates and mitigates implicit and explicit biases about people of color serving in leadership positions.
- We seek individuals from various race backgrounds for board and executive director/CEO positions within our organization.
- We have community representation at the board level, either on the board itself or through a community advisory board.
- We help senior leadership understand how to be inclusive leaders with learning approaches that emphasize reflection, iteration, and adaptability.
- We measure and then disaggregate job satisfaction and retention data by race, function, level, and/or team.
- We engage everyone, from the board to staff levels of the organization, in race equity work and ensure that individuals understand their roles in creating culture such that one’s race identity has no influence on how they fare within the organization.