United Way's better way

Source: Crain's Detroit Business
Published: 3:01 am, August 20, 2007

The exhaustive effort to overhaul the way United Way for Southeastern Michigan approaches solving social problems in the region is starting to take shape.

Now that United Way has identified the three major regional issues it wants to focus on, it's opening up its funding model to allow new agencies to apply for funds for the first time in 10 years. (See story, Page 1.)

United Way now will focus on three primary goals: helping children be prepared and successful in school, making families and adults financially stable and meeting basic human needs.

And it plans to create a “scorecard” to see how its funding has met any of those three goals.

Change is difficult, and there may be grumbling in the nonprofit sector about the course United Way is taking. It is a big change. But as any business leader knows, you can improve what you can measure.

This new model is a good start.