Greater Mankato Area United Way
August 30, 2024
Amount Requested$20,000.00
127 S. 2nd St. #190
Mankato, Minnesota 56001
Laura Murray
COO
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- Food and Housing Security
General Operating
Greater Mankato Area United Way's mission is to unite the community to secure and invest resources to improve people's lives by focusing on the impact areas of basic needs, health, and education.
$20,000.00
$2,089,242.00
$3,550,628.00
Yes
We are grateful for the Olseth Family Foundation’s continued support and partnership in keeping our region strong.
MATCHING GIFT:
In this application, we are requesting $20,000, contingent on our donors reaching this amount through a match promotion. Since our campaign kicked off in August, we DID meet this $20,000 match! We promoted the donation as a match on all new gifts (meaning the gift from a donor who did not give last year) and on any increased gifts (meaning the amount that a donor from last year increased their gift). Here are examples of the way we promoted this match and our partnership with the Olseth Family Foundation:
• We recorded a PSA with KEYC that played on rotation on their stations. KEYC donated this in-kind.
• We included an insert slip that went into our community mailers regarding the campaign; over 1,000 people received.
• Shared on social media.
• We shared at our Women with Heart event in early August with 750+ attendees (verbally on stage and visually in PowerPoints). Each attendee received the informational match slip inside their personalized envelope with a pledge form.
• We shared about the match during United Way workplace presentations (“rallies”) for area businesses. These are where we go into businesses to share about United Way’s work/community impact and give employees the chance to give. Several hundred employees were part of these rallies.
This was the fastest we have ever hit a match! We are grateful for the opportunity to leverage the generosity of the Olseth Family Foundation to encourage more people to give and in turn allowing us to help more individuals in our region.
HOW OUR REQUEST FITS THE FOCUS AREAS:
This request pertains to the 65 programs and initiatives that will be supported by Greater Mankato Area United Way’s 2025 campaign. Each falls under one or more impact areas of Basic Needs, Health, and Education. Greater Mankato Area United Way supports many other initiatives that are not included in this grant request or program budget, including literacy, suicide prevention, substance use disorder advocacy, mental health, and more.
Our work aligns with the Olseth Family Foundation’s mission to undertake initiatives for the common good and its focus on education. We also focus on important aspects such as housing and food security. Our programs under the impact area of Education include: Project for Teens' Peer Education, ServeMN's MN Reading Corps, Greater Mankato Diversity Council’s Promoting Respect Workshops, Blue Earth County First Steps’ prenatal program, YWCA’s New American Families and Youth Programming, YMCA’s School-Based Mentoring and Brother/Sister Program, Mankato Area Public Schools' Lincoln Logs Learning Center, Greater Mankato Area United Way’s Books for Kids program, and WellShare International’s Nuer Youth Community Initiative.
Our programs serve all ages at every stage of life, no matter the background or income level. Your support truly makes a difference.
All ages and income levels. Majority low- to moderate income (LMI) clients served.
Blue Earth, Le Sueur, Nicollet, Waseca counties
1. Keep our region’s services and funding balanced throughout the major areas of need.
2. In the area of education, we will build systems of support for parents and young children to ensure that all children are ready for kindergarten.
3. Support the physical and mental health of vulnerable families and individuals.
1. Support programs that fall under the areas of basic needs, health, and education, all vetted by more than 90 community volunteers and approved by our board for the 2025 calendar year.
2. Provide programming that supports parents from all different backgrounds in meeting their children's basic needs to promote healthy development and educational needs.
3. Provide families and individuals tools to maintain all aspects of healthy living.
1. Track and report data of people served through each program and chart proportions of “Basic Needs,” “Health,” and “Education” to ensure the impact areas remain balanced and/or aligned with our community’s current needs.
2. Provide funding to partner programs including First Steps, Lincoln Logs Learning Center, YWCA New American Families, and public preschool programs around the region.
3. Fund/track programs that support sobriety, therapeutic counseling for domestic/sexual abuse survivors, scholarships for access to fitness facilities, access medical and dental services, and other programs that affect social determinants of health.
01/01/2025
12/31/2025
In 1931, citizens formed our organization because they saw a need for a community-driven agency to address needs, raise essential funds, ensure transparency, and keep the region strong and balanced. Through the decades, we have overcome many challenges together, proving time and time again that we are stronger united. The foundation of our organization has always been collaboration and partnership. We are proud of our diverse partnerships with businesses, city/county leaders, nonprofits, schools, and community members of many backgrounds.
Businesses welcome us into their workplaces to hold more than 200 employee rallies throughout the campaign to learn about the impact our partner programs have on the region. Dozens of businesses provide sponsorships and/or in-kind donations to support our work. Last year, more than 1,700 corporate and community volunteers made our work possible.
We also have close collaborations with our partner agencies, with which members of our staff, board, and Community Impact teams partner.
Greater Mankato Area United Way participates in many groups and initiatives, including dental and health initiatives, regional homeless response teams, and more. Our literacy efforts include vital partnerships with Olseth Family Foundation, Capstone Publishing, regional elementary schools, and others. Another key part of our mission is convening the community, which is not included in this specific grant request or program budget listed. Greater Mankato Area United Way is currently focusing on community needs around mental health, suicide, and substance use disorder advocacy. We lead the Substance Use Disorder Advocacy Committee as well as the Greater Mankato Youth Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Committee. We are working with community partners to address needs and bring awareness to these key issues. United Way also hosts the resource hotline 2-1-1 as well as the local online volunteer connector, Get Connected, where nonprofits can post their volunteer needs.
Other year-round initiatives include hosting quarterly Success by Six forums with stakeholders interested in early childhood development, hosting philanthropic learning opportunities for our Engaged Leaders United group, and spotlighting children’s social, emotional, and mental health needs.
United Way serves as the fiscal agent and as a key member of the leadership team for Project Community Connect, an annual free community resource event that connects people who are struggling financially to services. This event welcomes more than 600 guests in need to receive free lunch and access to housing, employment, and other resources.
Other collaborative efforts include our annual Week of Action volunteer projects (connecting over 200 volunteers to local projects), Reading Festival (more than 600 attendees), local businesses' community fundraisers, and much more.
Each day, we strive to engage our region to live united. By working together, we are able to carry out our mission of improving people's lives.
This funding will be used for the programs' activities serving individuals and families in the 2025 calendar year. Our community impact review process, in which 90+ community members review all funding applications, go on site visits and hear agency impact, and finalize their recommendations, took place in Spring 2024, leading to the campaign officially kicking off in August 2024 to raise the funding for 2025.
Unapproved