Q: Why should people choose United Way?
United Way is changing and saving lives. People need to understand these dollars [donations] save lives – and our commitment is to provide the greatest return on that investment of any organization that does the work we do.
United Way has been celebrated every year by Charity Navigator as being the most effective and efficient at deploying dollars in terms of our overhead costs.
The importance to me is the level of impact, the level of scale, the change and the difference we can make and the efficiency by which we do that is unprecedented.
Q: In light of the recent merger, what would you like to say to Waukesha County residents regarding their gifts to United Way?
Our motto has been 1 + 1 has to equal 3. We really believe by the consolidation of these two organizations that both can now serve the community better as one. The need is so great in Waukesha and Milwaukee County that we have a responsibility that all needs are being met.
What we hope to do – and think we can do is that by combining these campaigns we can ultimately deploy greater resources in Waukesha County – that Waukesha couldn’t do on its own. We have employers and families that live in Milwaukee, work in Waukesha, live in Waukesha and work in Milwaukee. They are crossing these boundaries every day and are committed to solving problems in both communities.
I tell my Waukesha friends all the time that if we are successful in this we will be able to deploy more money in Waukesha.
Q: What would you like people to know about United Way?
Every day United Way is involved as a convener – bringing together teachers, parents, and community volunteers focused on making sure our children show up at school ready to learn and particularly ready to learn at the 3rd grade level.
One of the things that I’ve been surprised to know is that in spite of the tremendous variety of education options we have for our children whether its district schools, charter schools, or private schools - in spite of the tremendous variety of options we have literally the worst 3rd grade reading levels for African American children of any community in the country. We are a better community than that. It’s a problem we absolutely have to fix.
United Way is committed to breaking the cycle of poverty by making sure our children learn to read so they can read to learn. United Way is leveraging community partners to move the needle to improve our literacy rates. Over the next ten years when you look over our community you will see little boys and girls learning to read proficiently. They will be able to spend the rest of their lives reading to learn. If we can fix this problem we can be assured that together we are changing lives - saving lives - and breaking the cycle of poverty.
Learn more about United Way's work in Education. You can help students build their confidence and reading skills by tutoring with Milwaukee Succeeds.