Community Impact Investment

United Way of Monmouth County began a new era on October 1, 2010 with the start  of the new Community Impact funding cycle. Over the next few years, United Way will invest $500,000 per year in fifteen initiatives that will create measurable and lasting change in the areas of Education, Income and Health.

These initiatives were presented and approved for funding by the United Way Board of Directors at the September 14th meeting, and represents over two years of work by twenty-five dedicated community volunteers on our Education, Income and Health Impact subcommittees.

This process began in August 2008 with United Way’s announcement to transform to an organization focused on creating long-lasting community change, a process referred to as Community Impact. Through a wide-ranging data collection and analysis effort that included statistics, community surveys and focus groups, nine critical community issues were selected. These issues and the strategies to address them constitute our Community Impact Agenda, which was approved by the United Way Board of Directors in early Fall 2009.

Overall, 61 proposals were submitted for funding consideration. The fifteen requests that were funded each exemplified clear alignment with the Community Impact Agenda, the capacity to implement the project, the ability to join with collaborative partners, the leveraging of additional resources, the utilization of research-based evidence models and the capability to create long-lasting measurable change.

The fifteen Community Impact grants represent only our initial work through the new Community Impact model. Over the next few years, new initiatives and partnerships will be developed as we continue to invest resources to comprehensively address this agenda.