United Way of Tarrant County Releases New Strategic Plan
Introduces New Funding/Allocations Model
Plan defines role in community, responsibility as steward of donations
FORT WORTH, May 1, 2018 – United Way of Tarrant County today released a new Strategic Plan, which introduces a new model to allocate funds to community partners and agencies – Systems Change – which shifts a portion of funding to focus on the root causes of social issues and finding universal solutions for problems that impact entire populations and continue to occur.
“The Strategic Plan is our path forward. Our goal is not just to meet and manage the social issues of Tarrant County but to solve them for an entire community,” said TD Smyers, president and CEO of United Way of Tarrant County. “Our goal, as outlined in the Strategic Plan, is to make life better in Tarrant County by bringing more resources to affect populations, not just individuals.”
The Strategic Plan also defines United Way of Tarrant County’s role in the community and responsibility as the steward of investments by donors. The plan is centered around Systems Change, as well as Donor Centricity and Public Philanthropy:
Systems Change – is a new way to lead and allocate resources to not just manage social issues, but to solve them for an entire population.
Donor Centricity – is listening to and empowering our donors to support initiatives for which they have great passion.
Public Philanthropy – is recognizing that the social fabric of Tarrant County is made strong by every man and every woman contributing what they can to make their community a better place.
The Strategic Plan is the result of an extensive review, including 12 strategy workshops with more than 70 community stakeholders, of the effectiveness of the organization’s past funding model and operations. The organization found more work needed to be done to solve enduring social problems for populations and communities.
Also, United Way of Tarrant County has engaged the University of North Texas Health Science Center to conduct a comprehensive community needs assessment to uncover the most pressing social issues affecting the health and prosperity of the Tarrant County population.
The results of the assessment will allow United Way of Tarrant County to pinpoint priorities and future funding allocations to not only address the issues but to determine the root causes and solve them. United Way of Tarrant County will determine priorities and future funding allocations based on the results of the assessment.
