2020 was a year like no other we have faced. No one was truly prepared for everything that would unfold. While it was an incredibly challenging year, it was also marked with the very best of humanity. At the United Way of Anderson County, we were blessed enough to witness this first hand. As needs in our community arose, we were incredibly humbled to see how our community stepped up to help those most in need. In turn, we were able to partner with agencies all across the county to respond to these needs. We did peer support meetings, client referral meetings, wrote support policies and made ourselves available to assist wherever agencies came up against something they hadn’t faced before.

Those that could, gave to our Covid-19 relief fund, raising around $115,000! This blew our initial goal of $30,000 so far out of the water. While the majority of these funds came from individual donors, we would like to recognize several companies who stepped up and gave significantly: Avant, LLC, Y-12 Federal Credit Union Cares Foundation, 3M Company, Oak Ridge Noon Rotary Club, CNS Y-12, Oak Ridge Sunset Rotary Club, Altrusa Foundation of Oak Ridge, Taylor Martin Photography, Church Women United in the Oak Ridge Area, Creative Edge Dance Studio and State Farm Insurance-Ruby Miller.

Donations made to United Way allowed us to distribute 3 rounds of grants to a total of 12 agencies who demonstrated not only the need for such grants, but also showed sound plans on how these funds would be used to better our community during this unprecedented time. In addition, we helped more than 15 organizations complete and receive at least one round of PPP dollars, we assisted 10 more with Cares grant applications and sent constant communications about available dollars agencies could take advantage of.

With the highs, come the lows. While we were able to raise an incredible amount of money for COVID-19 relief, our traditional payroll and general giving came in far under goal. This put us in the unfortunate position of trying to provide stability, aid and assistance for our community while facing these reduced revenues. Our fund distribution committee along with the finance committee made the difficult choice of reducing funding to some of our partnering agencies. Sometimes these decisions made us unpopular, but we did what we had to do to help as many people as we could. 

To get to the financial level presented by the Finance Committee, the Fund Distribution committee had to set in place guidelines to assist them in making these hard cuts. These guidelines were set by analyzing the 2020 program reports to determine which programs were able to remain open during the entirety of the 2020 year. If agencies had to close, their program support grant dollars were simply not being used and therefore could and should have been saved for when they were able to return to normal operations. 

United Way of Anderson County continues to remain dedicated to our community and we feel we are on track to a better future. While we know the future is still uncertain, we also know that brighter things are on the horizon for all of us. We cannot thank you enough for your trust and your support during this past year. We hold each one of you near and dear to our hearts. As always, we can – and are – making a difference together.