Wayne Holmes United Way hits its goal of $1.3 million
The United Way of Wayne and Holmes Counties celebration of reaching its goal of raising $1.3 million in its capital campaign fund drive may have been held during frigid weather, but they gathered to celebrate with warm hearts. Pictured are Emily McNeil, left, UW administrative assistant; Katie Koglman, executive director of the UWWH; Jen Grimm of NAMI Wayne and Holmes Counties; and Lara Kiefer, executive director of American Red Cross of Wayne, Holmes and surrounding counties.
It may have been below freezing outside on Friday, Feb. 8 in Wooster and Millersburg, but for the members of United Way of Wayne and Holmes Counties and the many organizations they support, a fire burned deep and warm in their hearts as they celebrated an incredible accomplishment.
Not long ago UWWH began a monumental fundraising capital campaign to raise $1.3 million.
In what Katie Koglman, executive director of UWWH, called a “grand underdog story,” United Way celebrated the accomplishment of that goal, thanks to a caring community.
“It is exhilarating,” Koglman said. “When I came here, we had $100,000 in the campaign bucket. Our team got together and raised $1.2 million in 100 days, which is crazy if you think about it. But it wasn’t just the effort this team put in that made it possible; it was the generosity and love of our communities and their belief in the work that our partner agencies do. They invested in us and put their hard-earned money toward the programs we fund, and that is amazing and humbling.”
According to Koglman, UWWH has not reached its campaign goal since 2011.
She and the board now have the joy of figuring out how to directly distribute the money throughout the 25 partner agencies they support.
She said UWWH is only as good as the agencies with which they team, and knowing there are so many organizations and people who will benefit from this fund drive is what drove the entire team to work so hard toward reaching their goal.
“Our mission is to mobilize community resources to help people measurably improve their lives,” Koglman said. “By making goals, we will have more resources to fund area agencies and in turn help thousands of people in our community.”
United Way funds programs in four categories including health and mental health, safety net (basic needs), workforce development, and youth development. The programs United Way funds are reviewed by a group of community allocations volunteers who make a recommendation to the UWWH board of directors as to whom should be funded.
“The programs that receive funding from United Way are important to the communities we serve and are programs that provide countless resources to those in need,” Koglman said.
While $1.3 million sounds like it will go a long way, Koglman said the needs in the two counties are so great that this won’t begin to cover all of the needs that must be met.
“That is the sobering part about this,” Koglman said. “We have partners working on the homeless issues, the housing issues and those meeting the needs of emergency house fires. We have people suffering from substance abuse, and the list goes on and on. The needs are great, which is why this capital fund drive was so critical.”
Koglman said the recipe for this year’s success was due in part to the United Way‘s staff running a tight and well-planned campaign. She said the team came together and had one thing in mind, and that was to hit the goal.
Koglman said the team made more calls to donors than ever before, made more workplace campaign visits and wrote hundreds of handwritten letters in their determination to come out successful.
“Though all of the credit cannot go to the staff alone, United Way has a wonderful, supportive board that stuck behind us every step of the way,” Koglman said. “We also have workplace campaign ambassadors in the community that run individual campaigns. Those ambassadors put in countless hours into running successful campaigns within their place of work.”
Yes, when UWWH celebrated the success of the campaign in Wooster and Millersburg at the respective city squares, there was not a great deal of fanfare. There were no parades, no large crowds and no keys to the city being presented.
That isn’t why the UWWH team did what they did. They put in the effort because they care about the people in their communities who will benefit from the fruits of their labor, many of those being people the staff will never meet.
“This is all about service, and we are so proud to be part of this generous community,” Koglman said.