A little background:

Since its beginning in 1958, United Way of Windham County has been committed to meeting the needs of Windham County people, striving to make quality of life for everyone in Windham County the best it could be.

For many years that goal has been interpreted by offering support to area non-profit agencies that met the needs of the people of our local area. Accountability was offered to donors through our trained volunteer allocations review process and thus United Way served to bridge the gap between needs, resources and services.

Our perspective has changed:

In March of 2001 the board of Directors of United Way of Windham County met to reflect upon and revise the strategic direction of the organization. From that meeting grew the vision, that “United Way will have the greatest positive impact on the quality of life in Windham County, as defined by an informed process, inclusive of all Windham County stake holders.

From that vision evolved the strategy that a new model of United Way would be adopted. United Way of Windham County would act as a community leader to lead and advocate for an integrated, collaborative, efficient system resulting in new and creative local solutions to our most pressing community challenges. Consistent with this role, United Way would develop innovative fund development policies and strategies to support the system. And finally, United Way would begin to think, communicate and plan in terms of community impact.

Community Impact is our goal:

We define Community Impact as improving lives by creating sustained changes in community conditions through formal systems and organizations, less formal services and networks, in addition to any other method that those involved and most knowledgeable deem as a potentially successful vehicle for change. Community impact is our goal. We must remain open minded about how we achieve impact.

Our strategy is changing:

United Way of Windham County respects and appreciates its strong and long-term relationship with its partner agencies. We commend the hard work and dedication of the staffs and boards of these local mainstays. We look forward to continuing to work with these community resources on new and innovative solutions to our community’s challenges. We also are excited however, to work in new ways through specific initiatives to create sustained positive change in community conditions.