United Way of Russell and Washington Counties on Tuesday celebrated a record fundraising year with awards and applause at the organization’s annual luncheon.
The group topped its $1.2 million fundraising goal in regular donations and also received money earmarked for disaster relief following destructive tornadoes in the spring, for a total of $2.2 million. The luncheon was at the Southwest Virginia Higher Education Center.
But CEO Travis Staton said United Way is shifting focus now and its report around this time next year won’t come strictly in dollars.
“We’re not the same United Way that we used to be,” Staton said. “We have transformed from just being a fundraiser … to more of a hands-on, roll up your sleeves, we’re going to do some work [organization].”
The United Way chapter, which in 2011 began a program to distribute food to hungry kids through county schools, is getting ready to roll out three new initiatives this year, Staton said, on childhood obesity, education and financial stability.
Among the topics: kindergarten readiness, proficient reading, continuing education after high school and financial literacy.
“From here on out, we’re changing the way we do business,” he told the Bristol Herald Courier, announcing that the charity is re-examining which agencies it funds and plans to drop some agencies while seeking new funding sources for new projects.
“For the last couple of years, we’ve been treating symptoms,” he said, “and we can’t walk away from treating symptoms, but we are going to start investing in the root causes.”
The new mission sounds similar to that of People, Inc., an Abingdon-based charity that’s been working to combat “root causes” of problems for decades in Southwest Virginia. But Staton said his organization will work on different projects and pursue different funding sources.
He said the same move has been made by larger United Way chapters around the country, and it has made them more financially viable. He said his chapter will be the first in the Tri-Cities region to make the change.
In next year’s report, he said, United Way will share numbers on how many kids are eating healthy, not watching television, and reading proficiently.
This year’s fundraising goal, he said, will likely be set again around $1.2 million. The campaign chairmen are Johnston Memorial Hospital CEO Sean McMurray for Washington County, and Russell County Medical Center CEO Eddie Green for Russell.
dmccown@bristolnews.com
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