Doing More Together

One in three of our neighbors relies on nonprofits and public support to make ends meet. Nonprofits play a critical role in meeting pressing needs for food, housing, youth services, aging services, mental health services, and so much more. United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes has been supporting this vital work for more than 100 years.

Our work is guided by community giving and community need. We are motivated by the core belief that we can accomplish so much more together than we can alone. And we need the community in this moment.

Our nonprofit sector is at an inflection point. The environment in which we find ourselves in this post-pandemic world is unlike anything we have seen – business, education, government, healthcare, and nonprofits – each sector reinventing and finding its way forward.

Needs are up, giving is down, and public support that was available during the pandemic has expired. While we are fortunate to have the support of generous individuals and businesses, donations to our organization are down nearly 30 percent since 2019. We simply do not have the resources to provide multi-year grants at the level we have in the past.

We must adapt. We are committed to supporting nonprofits and their great work. The core of this effort is a new allocation strategy that devotes 55 percent of our resources to traditional multi-year grants and reserves 45 percent for one-year grants for high-impact efforts to meet pressing needs and support nonprofit organizations in ways we were unable to provide before.

Supporting our human service providers at scale is a community-wide problem that requires community-wide action. United Way cannot solve it alone.

Last year, over 30,000 donors supported our Annual Campaign, providing $18 million that went right back out into our community. More than 14,000 volunteers helped support our local nonprofits. That’s what collective action can achieve.

We will continue to seek solutions, mobilize resources, and connect people to services, funding opportunities, and to each other, but we need help. We know this is a painful transition for many of our nonprofit partners who have relied upon one type of support from us for so long. This change is painful for us and not something we did lightly.

Let this moment serve as a call to action. This is a time to come together, to give generously, to volunteer, to learn, vote, act, and check on neighbors – all the elements of civic life that build strong communities. Each of us has an important role to play.

Your United Way is committed to being part of the solution, to gather and mobilize the great talent, expertise, and generosity of our community to address our region’s greatest challenges. We strive for a future where everyone’s basic needs are met, no one lives in poverty, all kids learn and succeed, and every person, family, and child flourishes.

We can only get there by working together.

Jaime Saunders , President & CEO United Way of Greater Rochester and the Finger Lakes

United Way mobilizes the collective power of many to address our greatest community challenges. Learn more and support our work.