What We Do
Whether we're helping someone through everyday struggles or serving our community during recessions, natural disasters or the current pandemic, United Way of the Midlands has been committed to bringing together community partners to help those in need for 98 years. When we take a "united" approach by collaborating with corporations, government agencies, nonprofit partners and YOU, we are better able to tackle challenges and create a community where everyone has opportunities to grow and thrive.
And we are committed to doing it as effectively and efficiently as possible, meaning you can feel good knowing your dollars are making a difference. We are proud to be. . .
•Community-Wide Focused: To determine how to invest your donation, we continually assess which needs in our community are most pressing – and which are going unseen or unmet. This allows us to adapt our response to meet rapidly shifting community needs during trying times.
•Efficient: We meet the Better Business Bureau's standard for nonprofit efficiency, meaning we keep our costs low and invest more of your dollar back into local programs. We invest 92 cents of every dollar back into our community, and we strive to keep our overhead rate below 10%.
•Impact-Driven: Experts and volunteers evaluate each nonprofit program before making investments, so your donations fund the programs that make the biggest impact.
•Results-Based: To hold ourselves and our partner agencies accountable, we collect program results, measure the impact and share the results with you.
When you give to United Way of the Midlands you are helping fund our Circle of Support. The Circle of Support is a group of more than 100 nonprofit programs that are funded by United Way of the Midlands (UWM) donors like YOU! These nonprofit programs provide three different supports that are vital to helping families in need: Basic Needs, Education and Financial Stability.
As part of our work to provide a Circle of Support, United Way of the Midlands supports Job’s for America’s Graduates (JAG) Nebraska and the 211 Helpline.
To help local students achieve a bright future, JAG Nebraska utilizes a programming model developed by the national Jobs for America’s Graduates organization. The programming is conducted on-site at schools during school hours, and it helps students develop their skillsets and overcome hurdles so they can succeed in the classroom and the future workplace.
The 211 Helpline is a free, one-stop source of information for people in need of assistance. When someone reaches out to 211, a Community Resource Specialist assesses their situation and then utilizes an extensive, up-to-date database to find the best resource(s) to meet their needs. They act as a single point of contact for thousands of health and human service programs, community services, disaster services and governmental programs.
