The time is right to unite United Ways in Valley

For many decades, United Way agencies and their forerunner Community Chest organizations in Mahoning and Trumbull counties have served as the major philanthropic warehouse for scores of critically needed nonprofit service agencies in each of the two counties.

Today, they continue to serve that vital and compassionate function.

But as time and circumstances have changed, blurring county lines and molding a more regional identity in the Mahoning Valley, so, too, should the structure of these competing United Way organizations.

Toward that end, current discussions toward partnering in some tangible fashions the work of the United Way of Trumbull County and the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley deserve commendation and support. We hope they result in forging one single, stronger, more visible and potentially more successful United Way for the two counties.

UW BOARDS REVIEW PROPOSALS

The boards of both neighboring United Way agencies are reviewing 12 primary proposals and 16 secondary proposals — none of which unfortunately has been made public — toward consolidation of services. When the discussions conclude and the voting results are in within the next month, we hope the result is one larger and cohesive United Way of the Mahoning Valley.

First, there is strength in numbers. Since the first Community Chest in the United States organized in Cleveland 99 years ago, the largest charity organization in America has seen consistent growth. For most of those years, separate United Ways in Mahoning and Trumbull counties mirrored that growth.

By the early 1990s, each United Way was raising more than $3 million annually. Today, due to circumstances beyond UW control including a population decline and an economic freefall, those agencies raise far less, with Trumbull’s UW sometimes struggling to top $1 million in annual fundraising.

With a combined population and donor base of 450,000 people, a two-county United Way could realize significant efficiencies through economies of scale. Duplicated administrative and other functions would be eliminated, paving the way for a more forceful focus on the agencies’ core goals of fundraising, outreach and assistance to about 50 nonprofit community service organizations.

Considering the two agencies also share some common donors and recipients, one larger United Way with one stronger and noncompetitive appeals holds potential to achieve greater success with stronger impact on meeting the health, education and community-service needs of our Valley.

PRECEDENTS FOR PARTNERSHIPS

In addition, as Mahoning and Trumbull counties have forged a stronger common identity in recent years, other critical nonprofit groups have responded in kind with consolidation. Examples abound.

Chambers of commerce in Youngstown, Warren and Niles have merged to create The Regional Chamber, the American Red Cross has combined operations in Mahoning and Trumbull counties, the American Cancer Society has unified its work under one umbrella serving Mahoning, Trumbull and Mercer counties, Boys and Girls scouting organizations have merged councils beyond county lines as well.

With so many precedents and so much potential, one might wonder why a combined United Way has not been crafted sooner. It hasn’t been through lack of effort. Repeated attempts in recent decades have been met with resistance, particularly from Trumbull County UW leaders.

What derailed a merger in 1999, according to Strategic Alliance Feasibility Study commissioned by the two agencies, was, among other things: territorialism, cultural differences between the two organizations, and rivalry between Mahoning and Trumbull, which was then seen as the “deepest among all counties in Northeast Ohio.”

As many other Valley agencies and an increasing number of Valley governments have recognized, tearing down those walls of rivalry can produce lasting and multiple benefits. Let’s now demolish those same artificial barriers at the Valley’s largest charity to benefit the hundreds of thousands who profit from the commendable and needed work of United Way fundraising and outreach each year.