2020 Strategic Plan
In September of 2019, we began a collaborative process to update our Strategic Plan. We sought feedback from current and former donors, community leaders, and nonprofit partners about our role in the community and how we can best meet the challenges of a dynamic and changing future. We took the feedback we heard and the data we collected and charted a new course for the organization moving forward.
We want to express our profound gratitude to each and every member of our community who had a hand in creating this plan. Your input will shape our future for years to come.
Quick Jump Menu
Mission & Vision
In creating this plan, our first step was to conduct a frank examination of the challenges facing the world of charitable giving in this time of great need. That process reinforced our purpose, our mission, and the fact that we fill a critical role by bringing people, organizations, and resources together. We also heard that our work must go beyond improving community well-being to creating systemic community change, and so we updated our Mission statement to reflect this renewed focus.
Mission – We bring people, organizations and resources together to create systemic community change.
With this updated Mission, the community leaders on our strategic planning task force helped us articulate our vision of the future—where do we want to be?
- We want equity.
- We want the community to thrive and be united.
- We believe that the way to achieve that is through collaborative leadership.
Our updated Vision reflects that future.
Vision – We envision an equitable, thriving and united community achieved through collaborative leadership.
Values
The next phase of our planning process required our internal leadership team to identify the work that we would need to do to achieve this Mission and deliver the Vision. It became clear that first we must intentionally transform our culture and structure and align resources to support this work.
Values create and reinforce organizational culture, and our new Vision and focus on systemic change naturally led us to add Equity and Agility as guiding principles. We are committed to ensuring that our policies, practices, and distribution of resources prioritize historically marginalized communities so that all members of our community thrive. And we know that the work we have ahead of us requires us to act quickly, so we will foster a culture of responsiveness and flexibility conducive to innovation in every area of our business model.
New Values
- Agility – We foster a culture of responsiveness and flexibility conducive to innovation in every area of the business.
- Equity – We ensure that our policies, practices, and distribution of resources prioritize historically marginalized communities so that all members of our community thrive.
Remaining Values
- Accountability – We meet our commitments and deliver high-quality, high-value results.
- Collaboration – We actively include and engage all members of the community so that our work can be informed and enriched by diverse experiences and perspectives.
- Integrity – We are transparent, honest, dependable and trustworthy in every interaction and as stewards of resources.
- Service – We ensure that all of our work is for the good of others, both within the organization and in the community.
Strategic Organizational Goals
The strategic organizational goals outlined below require an intentional transformation of culture, structure, and resources toward a more nimble organization that thoughtfully engages the entire community in developing strategic, iterative solutions that lead to systemic community change.
Why we exist has not changed. What has changed is the environment in which we exist. We are committed to achieving these strategic priorities and demonstrating our updated values so that we can one day say that we brought the people, organizations, and resources needed together to create the systemic change that has made Buffalo & Erie County an equitable, thriving, and united community.
- Utilizing Data-Driven, Equity Informed Decision Making
- Strengthening Organizational Communication
- Prioritizing and Addressing Existing and Emerging Community Needs
- Supporting the Nonprofit Sector
- Delivering Best in Class Experiences
Closing
This strategic plan does not outline changes in what we do, but rather a fundamental shift in how we do our work.
United Way of Buffalo & Erie County is committed to achieving these strategic priorities and demonstrating these values so that we can one day say that we brought the people, organizations and resources together to create the systemic change that has made Buffalo & Erie County an equitable, thriving and united community.
