Donation to United Way is a gift to the community
The United Way of Dane County, long recognized for its work in combatting community problems, is in the midst of its 2024 fundraising campaign and needs your support now more than ever.
As its president and CEO, Renee Moe often points out that while Madison and the rest of Dane County are often cited as being among the best places to live and raise a family, nearly 11% of our population lives in poverty, enough to fill three quarters of the seats at Camp Randall.
United Way has traditionally served as an umbrella organization for most of the county’s nonprofits, a single place where individuals can make a donation that, in turn, is distributed to nonprofits that deal with specific causes and problems.
But what I like about today’s United Way is its efforts to locate the areas of greatest need and concentrate resources there ā the achievement gap in our schools, the impact of homelessness on too many children, the racial disparities in health care, are but a few examples. As important, the agency follows through to assess how the programs are working in solving the problems.
It’s estimated that during 2023 some 73,000 residents of Dane County received assistance that was funded by United Way. That included early childhood programing that provided home visits to those with unique needs, reading assistance to those behind in school, income help for impoverished families, efforts to fight drug addiction, just for starters.