On December 16, Brynn Grant, President and CEO of the United Way of the Coastal Empire (UWCE), spoke to the Skidaway Hamiltons and Abigails. Ms. Grant spoke extensively about UWCE’s response to the COVID pandemic. UWCE operates a 211 call center to direct callers in need to the resources that can help them. The number of calls exploded in March due to the pandemic. Volunteers and staff were quickly cross-trained to handle the call volume. UWCE also moved quickly to raise additional funds. The COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund was created on March 24. Almost $700,000 was raised, including seed money from UWCE’s existing disaster relief funds. 75% of the donors had not given to UCWE before. Ms. Grant told several stories illustrating individuals’ generosity during this time of need.
The COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund provides support for rent, mortgage, and utilities. People with needs must apply and demonstrate that their income has been affected by COVID. UWCE had to build a system to evaluate applications (speaking to landlords, utility company reps, and mortgage processors). In August, the City of Savanah and Chatham County asked UCWE to use this system to process CARES Act funds. At the time of this presentation, UWCE had helped 1951 individuals using its own funds. 96% of the individuals receiving funds had never received help from UWCE previously. In addition, UWCE helped the City and County process over $4 million in CARES Act funds. Over 4,000 people were assisted and roughly 600 evictions were prevented.
At the same time that it was heavily involved with COVID relief, UWCE had to continue to carry out its normal activities. It recently completed its fall fund-raising campaign. It met its goal of raising $8 million, despite having to do almost all fund-raising remotely. Gulfstream was the largest donor with over $1.5 million in contributions. Colonial Group celebrated its 100th anniversary in Savannah by matching 100% of its employee contributions and was the second largest contributor.
This was Ms. Grant’s first year on the job. She has been struck by how well UWCE responds to community needs, whether those are the needs of families in the community or the needs of the 54 non-profit agencies in the community that UWCE supports. She mentioned the vital role that volunteers play, citing the 70 volunteers that evaluate applications for UWCE’s grant process, the many who assisted in the call center, and those involved in fund raising. She mentioned new initiatives like the Young Leaders’ online training course where young people learn how to be effective nonprofit board members and the Coats for Kids program providing coats to children in need.
Ms. Grant mentioned that UWCE is working on a new strategic plan for the next 3 to 5 years. She hopes that it will be completed in March, and she is excited about the process and its conclusions.
In Q&A, Ms. Grant said that UWCE receives enormous support from the national United Way, displaying a huge binder from National on diversity, equity, and inclusion training. She mentioned that traditional UW workplace campaigns do not work very well young people today. National UW has beefed up its efforts to use online and virtual campaigns. Finally, she mentioned Landings resident Al Holzinger, who has long been an important UWCE volunteer. Anyone interested in getting involved with the UWCE grant evaluation process should contact Al.
