Partnerships with Foundations and Agencies to Improve Our Community

United Way develops partnerships with other funders and providers to help improve the quality of services that are provided.  We do this by identifying resources and delivering training and technical assistance related to management capacity building and best practices for service delivery.

Currently, United Way supports a partnership with The Forbes Funds to provide management capacity building assistance to agencies that are long-standing partner agencies but have not been successful in the new allocation process.  Assistance involves an assessment of their management/capacity needs, provision of a grant to work with a consultant to address their needs, and oversight to ensure that appropriate improvements are implemented.  One of the resources we have been able to tap through this partnership is the Rensselaerville Institute, a national consulting organization that is helping four of our large multi-service agencies to set and track targets to achieve significant gains for the people they serve.  Several of the smaller partner agencies are receiving assistance from local consultants for needs such as strategic planning and fund development planning.

Another partnership involves United Way support for an effort among local foundations to improve the quality of afterschool programs throughout the region—the group is determining the areas for improvement and then developing and proposing strategies to encourage local providers to participate in implementing improvements.  The group is working to ensure that the time spent by children in care after school will advance their development so they will be successful in school and beyond.

United Way’s goal is to invest in agencies that deliver services to address critical needs in an efficient and effective way so that persons with great needs will benefit.  By forming partnerships with agencies and other funders to increase management capacity and program quality, the community benefits from better results.