My Story: Why I Support United Way

November 10, 2025

Stories have the power to open hearts and minds, to spark change, and to build bridges between people and communities. They remind us of where we’ve been…and show where we can go.

Learn why Erika Smith, a Women United Co-chair, supports United Way as she shares her story.

My mother and late uncle were very involved in United Way Fox Cities, so at their urging I got involved in high school in their Youth Board. That was a team made up of volunteer high school students across the communities that received proposals and funded grants for student-run community initiatives. The board also supported various service activities throughout the year for United Way agency partners. In my second year, I served as a co-lead of the group which increased my confidence personally and helped build my leadership skills. 

Through those positive experiences, I increased my connection as a student volunteer by also serving on an allocations committee with broad community members. This experience stuck with me as the group often toured agency partners before meeting, including one particularly memorable homeless shelter supporting victims of domestic abuse – so I got to see United Way’s dollars in action. Again, the experience helped me find my voice (even as a kid in a room full of adults) by participating in committee conversation and helping to prioritize funding for agency partners. 

After graduating from Pharmacy School and moving to Waukesha County, I was interested in finding some volunteer opportunities and my first thought was to start with United Way. I see you all as a convener for opportunities but after talking to staffers at United Way of Waukesha County, they encouraged me to put my time and energy into service to United Way, which I happily did. I served on their Meeting Basic Needs allocation committee for a number of years, reviewing annual reports and funding requests, and submitting rankings and feedback. 

Eventually I found my way to a combined United Way of Greater Milwaukee & Waukesha County (after serving as the Froedtert Health campaign facilitator for two years and going through Project LEAD), first with Emerging Leaders and now with Women United. 

Based on my deep exposure to how United Way thoughtfully allocates funds to community partners – including ensuring community partners are demonstrating outcomes and are financially sustainable – it always felt like a safe and smart way to ensure my dollars were positioned to make a real impact. 

The pharmacist in me comes out when I call it “evidence-based investing” because similar to how we practice medicine, you aren’t randomly throwing treatments around or hoping for the best. You rely on consistently demonstrated evidence of impact. Of course, I still donate to other causes that pull on my heart strings or have a compelling story. But I choose to put much of our family philanthropic energy behind United Way because I believe in its approach. 

I also believe in the role it plays as a convener for a multitude of good solutions that can really be maximized when used together and optimally coordinated. United Way is uniquely positioned to serve in that capacity, and I think our new funding strategy around impact-based funding is a great step towards community-level change that could not be achieved otherwise. 

Another “why” is because of my role in health systems –  where we can see where societal and structural inequities result in lower life expectancy and poor quality of life – and that our role in solving for those gaps is inherently limited. I want our communities to thrive, and I want our health systems to be more accessible and help drive community level change, but I also want to support services that can impact community members IN their community and help get ahead of those inequities to prevent downstream stress, chronic illness, and other poor outcomes. 

And lastly, it’s important to me to be a role model for my kids (as my family was for me) in giving back and being a force of good for others. I’ve loved the past opportunities to involve my kids in volunteer activities run by United Way and talk about why and how philanthropy and service are important.

Spark change and inspire others. Donate to the 2025 Community Campaign today.

For more updates on United Way initiatives and events, follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.