United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona

Today, United Way's focus is to make a difference in the lives of children, families and seniors. We strive to make sure children are ready to learn, families are safe and self-sufficient and seniors remain independent and active.

Thanks to your help, we are achieving visible, lasting changes for Southern Arizonans.

We accomplish our results by bringing people together — subject experts, business leaders,donors, neighborhoods, and members of local nonprofit agencies — to help identify our community's most critical social issues. In forming these partnerships, we are better able to address the underlying causes of problems in our community and prevent them from happening.

United Way is focused on achieving real results through the implementation of strategies that work. To achieve the results donors want and expect, we need more resources directed to our work and our three focus areas so that we can make an even greater positive impact on the lives of children, families and seniors.

Our Vision: An economically strong, safe and healthy community where Southern Arizona residents can live and work.

Strategic Goal

To achieve measurable results in three areas:

Education: Helping People Achieve Their Potential
Income: Promoting Financial Stability and Independence
Health: Improving People's Health and Well-being

While we guarantee accountability by setting goals and measuring results, we invest in the areas that will make the biggest impact in our community — youth graduating from high school, older adults staying as independent as possible, and providing support for emergencies and basic needs. By focusing on positive, lasting change in education, income and health, we improve the lives of those most in need in Southern Arizona.

Community impact dollars are allocated through a comprehensive assessment process. United Way does not allocate the funds. Community volunteers from Southern Arizona help to decide which programs receive funding. These volunteers are active in our community and have a vested interest in making sure the funds are invested where they will do the most good for the most people. Any program receiving United Way funding is held accountable to quantifiable results and measurements, as well as a list of standards for each program. This is why when you invest through United Way, you know your dollar is being leveraged to achieve the greatest impact.

What our United Ways does well is to recruit people with passion, expertise and resources to make a difference. But that's not enough. We also aspire to drive collaborative community change. That means we – and our partners – must facilitate a shared community vision and coordinated action across a diverse coalition, along with mutual accountability, sustained effort and measured results. It means working collaboratively on community-wide and community-based strategies that can drive real change and bringing people from all walks of life together to work in meaningful ways – not just giving, but also advocating and volunteering – to advance these community strategies.

UWTSA positively impacts more than 233,000 people in Tucson and Southern Arizona each year by convening service providers, community members and funders, to create a long lasting collective impact.