UNITED WAY OF CENTRAL KENTUCKY INC

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.

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

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.

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.