As we launch the 2012 United Way campaign, I am reminded that one of the distinguishable marks of our region is passion. While each of us can talk about how the St. Louis region exudes passion from our various perspectives, I don’t think there is any better display of this passion, no better symbol, no better evidence than what happens during our community’s annual campaign to help our neighbors.
Through this helping process, the best of our community bubbles to the top and is there for the world to see. How awesome is this. It always warms my heart to hear the stories of local leaders who travel to other parts of our nation and learn firsthand from their colleagues and business partners how generous this region is. As one former campaign chair said, “The St. Louis region outfights its weight.”
United Way has been the beneficiary of extraordinary volunteer leadership and zealous donors who care about the voiceless, the faceless and those who have fallen on tough times. And they don’t just care, they care passionately. Ralph Waldo Emerson is quoted as saying, “Enthusiasm is one of the most powerful engines of success. When you do a thing, do it with all your might. Put your whole soul into it. Stamp it with your own personality. Be active, be energetic and faithful, and you will accomplish your object. Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.”
The case for United Way’s mission of uniting passionate people of different backgrounds and interests who work together to strengthen health and human services in our region was cemented many decades ago. Nonetheless, the environment in which we live out this mission continues to change each year. As our environment changes our strategies for helping has also evolved.
In 2009, United Way partner agencies collectively budgeted more than $3.7 million for employment services; by 2012 this number had increased to more than $7.6 million. At the same time that agencies are working to respond to emerging needs, they too must continue to address those other everyday mission-critical areas. The steady hand of leadership that staff and board volunteers have provided during the last several years is nothing short of amazing. The focus has always been and continues to be how do we provide the best possible services as a system for those in need.
I am especially proud of the passionate response from African Americans throughout the St. Louis region who have heard the clarion call for involvement and leadership. Despite double-digit unemployment and underemployment, many black leaders in this region have taken personal responsibility and shouldered the challenge of helping their neighbors. In each of the past five years, the Charmaine Chapman Society which represents African Americans who contribute $1,000 or more annually to our community through United Way, has increased giving. From 2006 to 2011 the group had generated a dollar increase of 45 percent.
The segment of the Charmaine Chapman Society that focuses on gifts of $10,000 or greater has increased by 84 percent. Considering the Charmaine Chapman Society outperforms every other group of its type in the nation connected to a United Way, speaks to a passion, speaks to an optimism and speaks to the same fighting spirit that characterizes our region and propels us to consistently “outfight our weight.”
Orv Kimbrough is adjunct at Washington University and executive vice president United Way of Greater St. Louis.Â
