UNITED WAY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY MARYLAND INC
We fight for the health, education and financial stability of every person in every community in Washington County
Programs and results
What we aim to solve
A lack of collaboration and waste of resources from a duplication of efforts. By increasing collaboration and communication, we hope to reduce waste, fill gaps, and grow services in our community so that everyone can not just survive but thrive. There are many well-meaning nonprofit organizations working towards similar, if not the same, issues in our community. To avoid wasting precious time and resources, we bring agencies together in collaboration to address important human service issues in health, education, financial stability, and the most urgent, basic needs. We do this by serving as a facilitator and funder of collaborative efforts by multiple organizations, including both private and public, and providing non-monetary resources to our collaborative partners.
Our programs
What are the organization's current programs, how do they measure success, and who do the programs serve?
Day of Caring
Day of Caring is Washington County’s single largest community service effort. By engaging people in volunteerism, United Way works to create positive change in Washington County. The Day of Caring is only possible with the help of hundreds of volunteers and assistance from local sponsors and businesses.
This is an event that mobilizes over a thousand volunteers (1,804 volunteers in 2019) to work on a variety of service projects at local nonprofit organizations (46 nonprofits in 2019) and homes of the elderly and/or disabled and military veterans (69 homeowners in 2019). United Way facilitates the much-needed projects performed in the community, at no cost to the homeowners. The additional resources and volunteers allow nonprofit organizations to continue focusing on serving the needs of Washington County.
Youth United
Youth United (YU) is a high school club in which members work together to help further the mission of United Way of Washington County in their high school and local community.
YU members find creative ways to raise awareness among their peers and the public about pressing issues in our community and the important work of United Way.
YU members get involved in activities that help them develop and practice leadership skills, including public speaking and the importance of advocacy.
Financial Literacy Program
Working with multiple nonprofit and for profit partners, provide financial education fo members of out community.
Where we work
Awards
Nonprofit of the Year, Finalist 2019
Washington County Chamber of Commerce
Nonprofit of the Year, Finalist 2021
Washington County Chamber of Commerce
Four-Star Rating 2023
Charity Navigator
Four-Star Rating 2024
Charity Navigator
Affiliations & memberships
United Way Worldwide 2019
United Way Worldwide 2020
United Way Worldwide 2021
United Way Worldwide 2022
United Way Worldwide 2023
United Way Worldwide 2024
External reviews
Our results
How does this organization measure their results? It's a hard question but an important one.
Number of youth programs offered
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents
Related Program
Youth United
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Youth United has been a way to involve our rising high school students in the community with volunteer and leadership opportunities.
Number of participants engaged in programs
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Adolescents, Adults, Veterans, Seniors
Related Program
Day of Caring
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Day of Caring continues to thrive and grow. Projects benefit the low-income, senior citizens, & military vets. Each volunteer averages six hours on this single day of service.
Number of backpacks filled with school supplies distributed
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth, At-risk youth, Economically disadvantaged people
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Context Notes
Micah's Backpack serves nearly 1,200 kids per week through the financial support of United Way. Micah's ensures children have food to eat on the weekend when the are not at school.
Number of children who received school supplies
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Population(s) Served
Children and youth
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Holding steady
Number of independent organizations served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Number of clients served
This metric is no longer tracked.Totals By Year
Type of Metric
Output - describing our activities and reach
Direction of Success
Increasing
Our Sustainable Development Goals
Learn more about Sustainable Development Goals.
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?
United Way fights for the health, education, financial stability, and most urgent, basic needs of every resident in our diverse community. Our top priority is to collaborate with community organizations while filling gaps to serve residents living at or below the federal poverty level. Our United for A.L.I.C.E project focuses on residents defined as the "working poor" or Asset Limited Income Constrained and Employed. ALICE lives with a modest household survival budget yet still struggles to make ends meet. ALICE's income is just at or above the federal poverty level. They have little to no savings and are living paycheck-to-paycheck. Our programs focus on financial stability, access to affordable, quality healthcare, essential needs such as food, housing, and much more.
What are the organization's key strategies for making this happen?
Our current strategic plan goals focus on:
1. Increase revenue and widen the scope of funding sources.
2. Increase Collective Action activities to bring more collaborative action.
3. Increase the use of multiple data sources to determine the community's needs and whether our supported collaboratives are performing as intended.
4. Increase community engagement to support our collaborative efforts, and
5. Increase the recognition of United Way of Washington County, MD, Inc. as the critical resource provider to non-profit human service agencies in Washington County through marketing and brand development.
What are the organization's capabilities for doing this?
We proudly function as a primarily volunteer-based organization. In doing so, this enables us to maximize our investment back into Washington County, Maryland. Our army of volunteers assists us with programming, raising donations, and developing and deploying resources. Our volunteers also help identify the most urgent, essential needs in our community and who should be our most vulnerable. We utilize technology, relationships with our many community partners, and volunteers to leverage our capabilities. We invest in creative and calculated ways to respond to the needs of our community in the best way at the right time.
What have they accomplished so far and what's next?
We actively collaborate with 83 organizations in the areas of health, education, financial stability, and basic needs. We offer one-year programmatic grants for funding in these areas as well. We also provide monthly urgent needs grants to help with unexpected, unbudgeted expenses, including food-related emergencies and insecurity. We have undertaken a two-year program to increase the strength of all levels of leadership in the field of human services and the agencies within the field to improve the viability of services provided in the community. We have significantly increased our supply distribution efforts in the past three years, including food, school supplies, hygiene items, PPE, and more. We have expanded our programs to include more literacy programs, free ride shares, food insecurity programs, financial literacy, and support for A.L.I.C.E individuals and families. We are also thrilled to continue promoting 2-1-1 as an invaluable resource for our community. Our annual Day of Caring continues to grow in both volunteers and projects.
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 collect feedback from the people we serve at least annually, 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 share the feedback we received with the people we serve, 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
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 WASHINGTON COUNTY MARYLAND INC
Board of directorsas of 02/01/2024
Mr. Shane Heizer
Carson Wealth Management
Term: 2024 - 2023
Julie Pippel
Environmental Consultant
Leslie DeMott
DC News Now
Mike Harsh
Hagerstown Community College
Gary Hayes
Retired Owner, Spherion Staffing
Tereance Moore
JLG
Ellen Prete
Citi
Zane Schreiber
Abeles Flurie Wealth Management Group of Wells Fargo Advisors
Angela Stouffer
WCPS - Smithsburg High School
Stacie Turner
Fiserv
Mark Zucca
Potomac Edison
Vaun Miles
Washington County, MD, Liquor Board
Emily Beecher
SEK CPAs & Advisors
Richie Holzapfel
The Holzapfel Group of Morgan Stanley Wealth Management
Nicole Alt-Myers
Myers Management
Ben Bruno
JLG
Lynn Haines
Meritus Health
Tim Haines
Washington County Public Schools
Tsala Harrison
PepsiCo
Mark Subrizi
Blue Ridge Risk Partners
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
The organization's leader identifies as:
Race & ethnicity
Gender identity
Transgender Identity
Sexual orientation
Disability
Equity strategies
Last updated: 02/01/2024GuideStar 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 ask team members to identify racial disparities in their programs and / or portfolios.
- 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 use a vetting process to identify vendors and partners that share our commitment to race equity.
- 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.