UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL KENTUCKY INC
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Bank On Central Kentucky
UWCK recruits and trains volunteer instructors to provide free financial education classes with the goal of moving unbanked or under-banked individuals back into the financial mainstream.
Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA)
United Way of Central Kentucky recruits and supports volunteers who work with Helping Hand of Hope, the Green River Asset Building Coalition and the IRS to offer a nationally recognized program for the first time in Hardin County- Volunteer Income Tax Assistance, also known as VITA. Hardin County residents making less than $54,000 in 2015 are eligible to have their taxes prepared for free at Helping Hand of Hope.
Volunteers are available to assist local residents in completing their taxes and determining if they qualify for credits such as the Earned Income Tax Credit and the Child Tax Credit, which can result in thousands of dollars in refunds.
Born Learning Academies
United Way strives to meet parents where they are. That’s the philosophy of the United Way Born Learning initiative, which has helped more than 15 million parents understand how to use everyday moments as learning moments. United Way Born Learning Academies are available throughout our region to provide caregivers with free opportunities to help prepare their children for success in school.
United Way Born Learning Academies use proven tips, tools and resources to help families take a more active role in preparing their children ages 0-5 for kindergarten. Through a series of six free workshops held in local schools, the Born Learning Academy provides families and caregivers with practical, user-friendly ideas to turn everyday activities into learning moments.
Programs include a family-friendly meal, prizes, and fun hands-on activities. Founded on an evidence-based curriculum established by early childhood faculty at Northern Kentucky University, the workshops are led by trained professionals—usually teachers, principals or other education staff—and focus on the following topics:
• Building Relationships
• Building Your Child’s Language Skills
• Nutrition and Health
• How Children Learn
• Routines and Learning on the Go
Find your local Born Learning Academy at http://www.unitedwayck.org/united-way-born-learning-academies-0 to get started on the path to kindergarten readiness.
FamilyWize Prescription Discounts
The partnership between FamilyWize and United Way has brought over $500,000 in value to our community through discounts on prescription medications that are not covered under their insurance, or have high co-pays or annual deductibles. Our free prescription discount cards are like coupons that can be used as much as you want, with 46% of the prescriptions filled through this program last year costing $15.00 or less. There’s even a Drug Price Lookup Tool provided free of charge on familywize.org and via the free FamilyWize app. Just enter the name of their medication and zip code to see which local pharmacy has the best FamilyWize price prior to filling your prescription. If your company would like to offer this benefit, we can provide free cards and materials to share with your employees.
Community Investment Grants
UWCK awards grants to local nonprofit programs that advance our goals of improving education, financial stability, and health while meeting basic needs. Learn more about our grants process at http://www.unitedwayck.org/how-we-invest.
Day of Action
United Way Day of Action is a massive annual volunteer initiative that takes place worldwide on or around June 21st and advances the areas of Health, Education, Financial Stability, and Basic Needs – the building blocks for a good quality of life for all. A variation of volunteer projects are submitted by local non-profit agencies, schools, and churches and are completed by thoughtful Individuals and businesses who join together to LIVE UNITED for the region’s largest volunteer opportunity.
Central Kentucky Serves
UWCK connects our community with volunteer needs from nonprofits across our region through an online platform, Central Kentucky Serves. Through this website, prospective volunteers can find service projects that fit their individual interests and availability. Access to the site is free for all users and agencies, regardless of their funding status with UWCK, which is made possible by support from Ft. Knox Federal Credit Union.
Way to Work
Way to Work is committed to helping its members attain full-time employment with benefits, achieve personal stability and improve their life.
Where we work
External reviews
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?
Since our inception in 2002, community leaders have come together to establish United Way of Central Kentucky (UWCK) as a way of more effectively identifying and addressing critical health and human service issues in our region. Our community has responded to these needs with unprecedented generosity, despite challenges that continued to persist and trap more local residents in the challenging cycles of poverty. In 2010, we began developing a strategic plan in response to these challenges, as well as the issues of declining revenue trends across the United Way network, lack of community understanding about our value, and to develop a framework for driving change in the areas of Education, Financial Stability, and Health. The strategic planning process incorporated mechanisms for collecting and assessing feedback from a wide range of corporate leaders, nonprofit agencies, funders, partners, United Way Board members, and staff at all levels of the organization. As a result of these efforts our organization achieved a new level of impact, but there is still much progress that can be made.
View our full 2020 Strategic Plan at unitedwayck.org.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
UWCK will capitalize on our strategic position to connect resources, people, and information to strengthen the nonprofit community as a whole and build our capacity for engaging community members in volunteer, leadership and advocacy activities.
1 in 6 individuals in our community – including 1 in 4 children– live in poverty. In order to reduce these numbers, we aspire to create a network of coordinated services that attack this complex issue from a variety of perspectives. Our funded programs must align with one of more ares of education, financial stability, health, and basic needs to be considered for grants. In order to have the most significant impact we will focus our efforts on achieving measurable change on key priorities in the areas of Education and Financial Stability, with the goal of reducing the demand for Health and Basic Needs services.
Education Priorities:
School Readiness outcome- children are academically and socially prepared for kindergarten.
Strategies:
-Screen for developmental delays and provide interventions
-Improve access to high-quality child development programs
-Increase caregiver knowledge, skills, and engagement in children's lives
Supportive Relationships outcome- children graduate high school on time and are prepared for careers or post-secondary education.
Strategies:
-Improve academic performance
-Decrease unexcused absences or suspensions
-Engage students in extracurricular activities
-Increase presence of a caring adult in children's lives
Financial Stability Priority:
Workforce Engagement outcome- Adults have a self-sufficient income and improved workforce engagement
Strategies:
-Increase access to employment and continued education
-Improve job quality
-Encourage mainstream financial services
-Remove transportation barriers
-Increase bundling of services
-Meet basic needs through wraparound services
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
Engaging Investors
RATIONALE: An engaged and supportive donor base is integral to implementing our strategy. UWCK will identify, acquire and grow our population of donors by fostering relationships and demonstrating a clear value proposition to them. We will grow our position as the philanthropic leader of choice for Community Impact by increasing our gross revenue to $1.5 million by 2020. We will leverage $2 million annually in resources by 2020 through cash and in-kind donations, sponsorships, and volunteer service, and the value of programs under management.
STRATEGIES:
-Identify and grow interested donor populations.
-Develop data-driven relationship management practices that increase donor retention.
-Package community impact efforts into valuable donor offerings.
-Personalize our work.
-Enhance our reach through marketing and communications.
-Grow revenue beyond the traditional campaigns
Mobilizing Volunteers
RATIONALE: UWCK will become a world class, high performance organization, driven by a team of highly qualified, motivated professionals and volunteers working in a culture of passion, empowerment and success. Our organization will mobilize the talent and expertise of our community's human resources in initiatives that reinforce our Community Impact goals and support the growth of UWCK.
STRATEGIES:
-Develop a range of direct volunteer opportunities to expand the UWCK network.
-Mobilize volunteers to reinforce Community Impact efforts.
-Build and maintain a highly effective volunteer team.
-Collaborate with partners to centralize community service needs.
-Align AmeriCorps VISTA member projects to more effectively use this resource.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
Over the past several years, many of you have watched United Way of Central Kentucky evolve from our roots as a fundraising organization to a community convener that mobilizes businesses, organizations, community leaders, public officials, and local residents to expand opportunities for people to succeed. Whether you have attended our Community Conversations, Focus Groups, issue-based Summits, or shared your expertise on our Impact Councils, thank you for lending your voice to this important listening process as UWCK works to implement our community's agenda for change. We are proud of the progress that was made in the past, and have included significant milestones in our transition below as we lay a new future for plans through 2020.
2010
Validated need to shift to Community Impact model.
Held first Project United event to position UWCK as a community convener and mobilizer, in addition to a fundraising agency.
2011
Surveyed region, nonprofits, and key stakeholders to assess growth opportunities.
Determined that greater awareness of UWCK's work needed in surrounding counties.
Continued focus on volunteer mobilization and governance.
Developed first-ever 3-year strategic plan to deliver on these goals.
2012
Held Community Conversations in all 5 of UWCK's Counties.
Turned outward to gain deeper understanding of communities' aspirations.
Poverty determined to be 'common thread' issue needing focus of resources.
2013
Held series of Focus Groups with key community leaders, including Education, Health, Industry, Religious Community.
Feedback from these conversations confirmed need for bold community-wide goal.
UWCK publicly planted a stake in the ground around the issue of poverty, specifically cutting poverty rates in half.
2014
Worked with consultant Dan Duncan to provide Asset Based Community Development and Results Based Accountability trainings for UWCK and nonprofit partners.
Convened Impact Councils on the key issues of Education and Financial Stability to identify funding priorities that could best drive a reduction in the long-term issues related to poverty.
UWCK released Community Impact Measurement Framework as a method of commonly measuring the results of funded programs in priority areas.
Developed the Poverty Task Force to help direct initiatives based on Community Impact agenda.
Publicly created conversation around the issue of poverty, hosting an annual Poverty Simulation and facilitating Making Choices exercises throughout the campaign.
2015
Held Summits on the issues of Early Childhood Education, Financial Stability, and Childhood Hunger.
Developed AmeriCorps VISTA projects to supplement UWCK funding on key issues of early childhood, financial stability, housing & homelessness, and childhood hunger.
First year of CIT funding tied to Impact Priorities and standardized outcomes for these areas.
Financials
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Operations
The people, governance practices, and partners that make the organization tick.
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.
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 CENTRAL KENTUCKY INC
Board of directorsas of 04/20/2023
Jon Ballard
Elizabethtown Independent Schools
Term: 2019 - 2019
Ray Springsteen
Ft. Knox Federal Credit Union
Allison Baumgardner
The Cecilian Bank
Grant Niebuhr
Altec
Jon Ballard
Elizabethtown Independent Schools
Rita Williams
RE Williams, Inc.
Trena Floyd
Wesbanco Bank
Chad Sarver
Altec
Jerisia Lamons
Elizabethtown Community and Technical College
Billy Cann
The Cecilian Bank
Greg Milby
Heartland Communications
Linda Pepper
Retired - Wesbanco
C.J. Quick
Brighter Futures Counseling
Brett Barnes
Metalsa
Scott Conway
Magnolia Bank
Sean Clinning
Dow Chemical
Kathy Gedling
Breckinridge County Schools
Pastor Jeff Noel
Grace Heartland Church
Caryn Lewis
Grayson County Schools
Dr. John Godfrey
Hardin Memorial Health
Marty Littrel
Meade County RECC
Teresa Logsdon
Hardin County District Attorneys Office
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 ? No -
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