How the United Way helps all of Greenwich
Dear Greenwich residents, First and foremost, we hope you and your loved ones are safe and well. As we head into a holiday season unlike any we have experienced before, it is so important that you know the significance of the Greenwich United Way’s (GUW) work, how it affects you and your neighbors, and how the GUW is the one organization that helps all of Greenwich.
Since 1933, we have been uncovering the unmet health, education and self-sufficiency needs of Greenwich, raising awareness and support, and developing lasting solutions. Simply put: we find it, we fund it, and we fix it.
With our own programs — like the one to close the achievement gap in town — and via the grants we make to Greenwich organizations that serve our most vulnerable, GUW helps to make Greenwich, well, Greenwich.
How do these programs and grants help you?
In our rigorous Community Investment Process, grant applications are carefully scrutinized and we drill down to understand how the last dollar is spent by grantees, ensuring the greatest impact for our donor contributions. And because of this process, your neighbors receive the help they need to give them a better quality of life and as result improving the town in myriad ways, helping everyone who lives and works here.
GUW’s own programming, like the Early Childhood Achievement Gap Solutions (ECAGS) program, convenes several key players in town to address the gap that prevents children from succeeding. This program is a data-driven, results-based, twopronged approach aimed at help
ing children from birth to age 5 – the most critical learning period of a child’s life. When a child enters kindergarten after going through a program like ECAGS, data shows their success rate is increased dramatically. ECAGS is currently in its third year and our early data is bearing this out. And when our kids succeed, we ALL succeed.
During the early days of the pandemic, GUW raised almost $900,000 for COVID relief. Most of that has been granted to organizations that fed our hungry children, families and seniors; engaged our aging population to get them through their days; assisted kids who need counseling; made sure food was delivered to front-line workers; gave micro-grants to families in need for basic necessities; helped small business owners to stay afloat through the pandemic by order
ing meals through them; and made countless connections that helped hundreds of people get a service or item they needed to survive.
Greenwich is a community that steps up to assist the most vulnerable time after time, just like the Greenwich United Way. Now more than ever, GUW needs Greenwich. Our Annual Campaign that funds our grants is almost halfway through the fiscal year. As we continue to navigate this crisis, GUW is 100 percent sure we will meet our fundraising goal.
Why give to the Greenwich United Way? We do the work so you don’t have to, building a better, stronger community as we go. On behalf of those we serve, thank you.