United Way of Greater Augusta

Our Vision

To be the leader that has united the community towards positive change.

Our Mission

To serve as a catalyst to improve the lives of people in our community.

Our Core Values

In active partnership with our community, the United Way of Greater Augusta, Inc. serves as a catalyst to improve the lives of its citizens by: assessing and prioritizing needs, mobilizing and focusing resources, supporting and facilitating solutions. This critical role requires that all of the United Way of Greater Augusta (UWGA) board members, staff, volunteers and representatives who foster such essential public good must assume the responsibility of earning public trust.

Accordingly, UWGA plays a unique role both as a leader in the health and human services sector and as a major resource to the community by building trust through all that we do. This bond of trust goes far beyond legal or regulatory requirements to include our core values and ethics. To fulfill this special obligation, four core values provide the foundation on which we base our actions and decisions:

Integrity

We believe that integrity inspires the highest truth, which we exemplify by:

Volunteerism

We believe that the most effective models of service and excellence are created through the leadership of volunteers, which we demonstrate by:

Encouraging, supporting and soliciting community volunteers.
Modeling volunteerism.

Inclusivness

We believe we are strongest when we involve every segment of the community which we become by:

Acting in ways that respect the dignity, uniqueness, and intrinsic worth of every person.
Utilizing the rich diversity and gifts of all people.

Partnership

We believe that community partnerships are catalysts for positive change, which we develop by:

Being committed to partnerships with our community to make positive and measurable differences.
Leading processes that multiply the impact of people’s desire and capacity to care for one another.

Adopted by the UWGA Board of Directors

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History

United Way, originally known as the Charity Organization Society, was started in 1887 by a priest and a rabbi. Their goal was to conduct a combined fund raising campaign to support ten agencies in Denver, Colorado. Their first campaign raised $21,700. Around 1942 the communities of Staunton and Waynesboro founded United Way organizations. As services begin to overlap, these separate organizations saw an opportunity to become more effective in their community service; a

nd in January, 2004 the two United Ways merged to become the United Way of Greater Augusta, Inc.

United Way organizations are unique for many reasons. They accept the role of identifying community issues and needs, finding creative ways of addressing those needs and following through on the solutions. They partner with agencies, through existing programs, developing new programs, funding programs, measuring o

utcomes and holding themselves and their agencies accountable. The work is done through staff and volunteers.

Each year, the United Way of Greater Augusta, Inc. conducts a major fundraising campaign. The majority of the campaign is conducted in the workplace where donors are given a payroll deduction option thus making an investment in our community easy. United Way staff, company and community volunteers work very hard conducting the campaign.

Once the campaign is completed, the funding allocation process begins. Agency applications are evaluated, considering the need for the services, the fiscal viability of the agency, the need for United Way funding, and the outcome of the services provided by the agency. Recommendations for funding are made to the Board of Director’s. Funds are then allocated and monthly distributions are handled by the United Way staff.

At this time, there are nearly 116,960 people living in Staunton, Waynesboro and Augusta County. Approximately 16% have less than a high school education, 20% live below poverty, 18% are disabled and 15% are medically uninsured. So, the need is great.

Your United Way worked with other community organizations in the development of the Teen Pregnancy Prevention Coalition. Through this program, our area's teen pregnancy rate dropped from one of the highest in the country of 46.4 pregnancies per 1000 females in 1997 to 29.6 per 1000 in 2007. While reduction is occurring, there is still a long way to go to get this number issue under better control.