Strategic Plan 2009-2012
Strategic Plan 2009 -2012
The United Way of Tarrant County Board of Directors has approved a new strategic plan for the organization for 2009-2012. The plan is the result of many months of analysis and discussion by a committee of United Way board members, other volunteers and senior staff members.
They looked closely at both the traditional functions of United Way, new roles it should assume and evolving technologies it should embrace. The social, economic, geographic, demographic and technological environments within which United Way functions were evaluated as well.
Highlights of the new plan include:
New Vision
“Tarrant County will be a place where children, individuals and families thrive, where neighbors care for each other and where people willingly share the responsibility of ensuring a safe and healthy community for all.”
New Mission
“To improve lives across our diverse communities by:
- Prioritizing needs in education, income and health
- Forming innovative and effective partnerships with other organizations
- Strategically raising and investing resources to make lasting change.”
New Education, Income and Health “Impact Issues”
Beginning in 2010, Tarrant County United Way will focus on making a measurable impact in three areas that are tied together by United Way’s interest in increasing personal and economic self-sufficiency:
- Education: Getting Children and Youth Ready to Learn, Ready to Earn
- Income: Helping Families Become Financially Stable and Self-Sufficient
- Promoting Health: Healthy Aging and Independent Living for Seniors and People with Disabilities
Detailed strategies for each issue will be developed no later than the end of March 2010. Current plans call for the education issue to be implemented over 10 years. Work in the other two areas will extend at least three years. United Way currently has five impact issues, but the Strategic Planning Committee determined that focusing on a smaller number of issues will make the best use of United Way’s limited resources in the future.
More Investment in High Priorities
The three impact issues were selected because they are topics that address local high-priority needs and are areas where United Way believes its strengths and resources will be able to make a significant, measurable improvement in lives and community conditions.
Currently 11 percent of the money disbursed by United Way’s community development volunteers is invested in programs that work to move the needle on community conditions in specific impact issue areas. Eighty-nine percent goes to basic health and human services that provide stability to individuals and the community. The strategic plan calls for this ratio to be rebalanced over three years so that up to 60 percent of the dollars dispensed by the volunteers is used to address impact issues.
In addition, the annual amount of funds available to any one agency for “stability” services will be capped at $500,000 by 2012.
Though some things are changing, United Way’s commitment to program excellence and its insistence on results that make a measurable difference will not change.
