United Way of Central Oklahoma

Goal I: Invest in programs based on research-driven analysis.
During United Way of Central Oklahoma's annual community investment process, volunteers receive "Trends in Community Needs," a research brief prepared by UWCO's research department. The brief identifies issues relating to the most prevalent needs in our community. Volunteers use the research brief, as well as referral data from Heartline 211's community helpline, to guide their review and discussions of UWCO's funded programs and make informed recommendations based on their analyses.

Goal II: Increase awareness of our community's greatest needs.
UWCO is one of the only United Ways in the nation with staff dedicated to research. They continuously monitor the needs of the community and identify service gaps in central Oklahoma. Through the data we collect and the research conducted for our Vital Signs publications, we are acutely aware of the gap in meaningful resources that exists for those in need in our community. We share these statistics and stories in the hope that others will commit to creating a culture in Oklahoma that cares for the disadvantaged by taking action.

Goal III: Support innovative collaborations to maximize impact.
While providing critical funding to results-oriented programs at proven nonprofit agencies will always be central to our work, increasingly we find ourselves called upon to address needs even more directly. We work to address social issues identified through our research by convening community stakeholders and collaborating on solutions. In addition to our Partner Agencies, our United Way leads or actively participates in 30+ community initiatives. The WayFinder program and EmbraceOKC are two examples of this work. The WayFinder program provides one-time funding in the form of social innovation grants to local nonprofit agencies. Local nonprofits submit new ideas on how they can address local needs in a new, innovative way that has never been implemented in central Oklahoma. EmbraceOKC is a collaboration between Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS), the Oklahoma City Chamber of Commerce, UWCO, The Foundation for Oklahoma City Public Schools, and the Oklahoma Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services to support behavioral health improvements throughout OKCPS.

The annual Community Investment process plays a vital role in ensuring United Way's accountability to its donors. Through this process, the needs in the community are reviewed alongside the effectiveness of United Way funded programs. This evaluation is done entirely by donor volunteers, who attend approximately six meetings and conduct site visits to Partner Agencies between the months of January to September. They review the program budgets, 990's, audits, and measurable outcomes. The volunteers monitor program effectiveness as an important component of determining their funding recommendations. More than 4,000 volunteer hours each year are spent on this process. Based on information gathered, the Community Investment Committee makes funding recommendations to the United Way Board each June for approval to begin funding in July. United Way staff then monitor and track program successes and/or challenges regularly providing data and research to our community stakeholders.

United Way of Central Oklahoma works with hundreds of community-minded organizations to host workplace campaigns for United Way and/or contribute corporate donations. Donations raised by the campaign in central Oklahoma, United Way of Logan County and United Way of Canadian County help fund 136 local programs administered by 73 Partner Agencies.
The annual Community Investment process allows United Way to remain transparent and accountable for dollars raised during the annual campaign. Following this process, volunteer teams make funding recommendations based on their findings and the program funding requests. These recommendations are then voted upon by the United Way Board of Directors. This process ensures donor contributions are invested in the local community in the most efficient and effective way.
We further strive to foster new leadership and growth through our affinity groups, BoardServe program, and our volunteer center. Our Alexis de Tocqueville Society, Women's Leadership Society, and Emerging Leaders group help to foster relationships and continued stewardship across the lifespan and amongst our most philanthropic-minded supporters. Our Volunteer Center allows for the community to give back while learning more about the safety net built by United Way. And our BoardServe program is a unique program dedicated to improving nonprofit boards by recruiting, training and matching board members with nonprofit agencies in central Oklahoma.

The 2020 United Way Campaign raised $20.4 million through several hundred employee workplace campaigns as well as corporate gifts and thousands of individual donations.

The United Way's Communications Committee facilitated promoting United Way of Central Oklahoma through media outlets with more than $2 million worth of in-kind donations of advertising from our media partners.

For the 2020 community investment process there were 160 volunteers representing 72 workplaces donating an estimated 4,000 hours reviewing applications, budgets, financial reports, as well as attending meetings and site visits.

In 2020, our Volunteer Center matched/placed/referred nearly 1,300 volunteers in our community. Volunteers dedicated to the United Way mission donated 17,000 hours of service to the community.

One of our newest innovative programs is our WayFinder grant program. Sparking new approaches to solving our community's biggest challenges, UWCO founded the Wayfinder Innovation Grant in 2019. Now in the third year of the program, Wayfinder encourages local nonprofits to design creative programs addressing health and human services needs in the central Oklahoma community. In 2021, three nonprofits were selected for funding through the WayFinder Innovation Grant: Goodwill's virtual reality forklift operations training utilizes a virtual and non-traditional training format to teach technical, digital, and soft skills needed to operate forklifts. NewView Oklahoma's mobile low vision clinic will help remove barriers to eye care by offering free exams to a variety of underserved populations and communities in central Oklahoma. Youth & Family Services intergenerational living program at Intrada will create structured, intentional opportunities for low-income seniors, other vulnerable adults and independent living program youth to connect through shared activities at an affordable housing complex.