The United Ways of Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent are uniting as one entity starting July 1, 2024.
"A great announcement is the unification of United Way Windsor-Essex and Chatham-Kent, to form one regional United Way," said United Way Windsor-Essex CEO Lorraine Goddard. "We think this is a fabulous opportunity for both of our communities. It will strengthen the capacity of the United Way to have a greater impact in our community, support more people, and create efficiencies as well."
Goddard will move into her new role as CEO of United Way/Centraides Windsor-Essex Chatham-Kent next week, and while the two United Ways might be combining to form one, the money raised in their respective areas will remain in those areas.
"We will be tracking the donations separately and being able to post them to Chatham or Windsor," said Goddard. "Our United Way has worked really hard over the last couple of years to develop a donation tracking sales force database which gives us some capacity to be able to do this effectively."
Currently, both United Ways have their own staff and board members, under the new amalgamation, the 22-member Windsor-Essex board will create space for four board members from Chatham-Kent, maintaining the board number at 22.
There is no final word on who will sit on the board for Chatham-Kent and Winsor-Essex. The current board President of the Chatham-Kent United Way, Chris Appleton, is unsure of what his new role will be.
"We are going to be trying to figure out how many directors are going to be part of the new board," said Appleton. "Where I'm going to fit in has yet to be decided."
The Windsor-Essex United Way will continue to have staff and operate at 300 Giles Blvd E. The same goes for the Chatham-Kent United Way at 425 McNaughton Avenue West and the Tilbury Information and HELP Centre in Tilbury.
"What we are doing is we are going to have local staff and we will be posting positions. We have committed to the existing staff to be interviewed, and to have a fair competition for them," said Goddard. "There will be no job losses in the community."
The uniting of these two United Ways has been a few years in the making.
"This was not something that just came out of the blue," added Goddard. "But there is a time and pace of change that organizations need to determine for themselves. And after numerous conversations and going through a pandemic... it was decided this was the best course of action for both our organizations."
The United Way of Chatham-Kent has been in the news over the last year, for the resignation of CEO Barbara Palace in September for personal reasons and for a former employee who allegedly misappropriated funds, but these incidents didn't greatly impact a decision that was several years in the making.
"No, they may have hastened it, but... we were on the path to regionalize before then," said Chatham-Kent United Way CEO Maureen Geddes. "Windsor is a stellar example amongst the United Way family and in the charitable sector and we are delighted to be a part of that, and we have been for months now. It's been a journey but it's been a catalyst to get that done."
Next for the newly united United Way/Centraides Windsor-Essex Chatham-Kent is to launch a new reinvigorated fundraising campaign for Chatham-Kent that will engage both workplaces and donors.
"We want to come back full forth to reconnect with workplaces and donors and rebuild the United Way brand and be able to raise as much money as we can," said Goddard. "Because obviously, the more dollars we have the more work we can do in the community."