United Way Campaign

campaign news

Remarks of Chancellor Mark A. Nordenberg
United Way Leadership Donors/Volunteers Recognition Luncheon
William Pitt Union – Assembly Room

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

We all know that the United Way and its partner agencies enhance the quality of the daily lives of many people in our home region. The United Way is there– coordinating, networking, and marshaling resources – to help those, sometimes in desperate need, who are trying to hold things together in the face of wide-ranging challenges and to press forward with efforts to build better lives.

The United Way of Allegheny County currently is funding programs, to give some telling examples, that will prevent mortgage foreclosures, evictions, and utility shut offs that otherwise would affect low-income adults and their families; that will assist veterans experiencing homelessness, unemployment, and incarceration; and that will provide employment support services such as child care, transportation, and job training. The United Way also is funding programs that will help prepare our children for success as they enter kindergarten, increase student proficiency in math and reading, and assist young people who are involved in the foster care or juvenile justice systems with employment skills and training.

The strength of our local United Way is the product of many factors, not the least of which is the visionary leadership of Robert Nelkin – the creative, committed, compassionate person who, for many years, was our colleague and who recently completed his second year as the President and Chief Professional Officer of the United Way of Allegheny County. At the heart of the United Way’s success, of course, are the many generous donors and volunteers whose compassion, generosity, and support have been nothing short of extraordinary. Those donors and volunteers include each of you and scores of other members of the Pitt family whose generosity has helped to provide our hungry neighbors with food, our homeless neighbors with shelter, and our dispirited neighbors with hope, even in the face of life’s many daunting challenges.

Last year, here at Pitt, we raised more than $560,000 – $561,904 to be exact – to help our neighbors in need.

How do we measure our success? In part, we do so by looking at the numbers. The number of leadership gifts, for example, rose from 184 in 2006 to 195 in 2008. The number of donors to the Impact Fund increased by 146, and total donations to that important fund rose to $277,532. And this was achieved in the midst of last fall’s worsening recession! Last year’s remarkable level of giving placed the Pitt-United Way campaign in the top ten of the 700 local campaigns, and we had the fourth best campaign for employee leadership giving! That is one way that know we are making a difference!

But our commitments go beyond those numbers. For example, Pitt has long been a proud sponsor of the United Way’s Days of Caring. Nearly three weeks ago, more than 450 Pitt volunteers turned out, rolled up their sleeves, and participated in this very special form of United Way outreach. From planting perennials in the Hill District’s Cliff Side Park, to creating a new Oakland food pantry in a former elementary school, to painting the Fifth Avenue bus rail that runs through the heart of our campus, when it comes to reaching out a helping hand and contributing to the greater good, it is difficult for any group to match what the people of Pitt so willingly do, and so generously give, every day of every year.

Though we have our share of challenges, those of us working at the University of Pittsburgh are pretty lucky. Through the United Way, we have the chance to share some of our good fortune, in the process helping our neighbors in need while we also build an even stronger community.

your dollars at work

$2 per pay

• Provides more than two hours of skills training for a physically challenged individual to help him maintain or improve his independence.
• Pays the college application fee for one teen whose family cannot afford the cost.

$3 per pay

• Helps one senior annually with grocery shopping, rides to medical appointments, friendly visits and telephone reassurance, home safety assessments and modifications.

• Helps one family avoid mortgage foreclosure, minimizing instability.

$4 per pay

• Provides job readiness training for one at-risk youth, directing her on the path to personal responsibility.
  
• One month of after-school programs for a low-income child, giving her a safe, stimulating environment to go to after classes.

$5 per pay

• Pays for one senior membership, including health and wellness services, at a local YMCA

• Pays for ten sessions of home maintenance exercise activities for a low-income
  individual with Multiple Sclerosis.

$10 per pay

• Provides five hours of professional counselling for a child who has been
  victimized by or witnessed domestic violence.
• Provides a family one week of food from a food bank.

$15 per pay

• Provides 180 Christmas gift bags for lonely seniors receiving home
  delivered meals.
• Provides 13 weeks of public transportation for an unemployed parent to attend a
  technical training program and receive job search support.

$22 per pay

• Furnishes at least one night of shelter for a woman and her child fleeing an
  abusive situation
• Provides one adult with basic needs such as food, clothing and shelter, and
  services that will guide them toward long-term self sufficiency