About Us
Our Mission
The United Way of Hudson County improves lives by mobilizing the caring power of our community to advance the common good.
Established in 1936, United Way of Hudson County envisions a world where all individuals and families achieve their human potential through education, income stability and healthy lives. Our staff, partners and volunteers are committed to ending the cycle of poverty by addressing homelessness, housing and hunger, and by giving our children and adults the skills they need to succeed in life. With the power to convene with public and private partners, United Way of Hudson County is a first responder for the big issues confronting our neighborhoods.
Who We Are
United Way encompasses a global network of non-profit organizations operating in 48 countries and a national network of more than 1,300 locally governed organizations that work to create lasting positive changes in communities and people’s lives.
Building on more than a century of service, United Way engages local communities to identify the underlying causes of their most significant issues by developing strategies to pull together financial and human resources.
Locally, the United Way of Hudson County focuses its fundraising and support efforts on four critical areas that have the greatest impact on our communities:
- Protecting and saving youth victims who suffer from abuse and neglect
- Advocating for resources to help people with special needs
- Organizing the non-profit sector into a community resource bank
- Joining a nationwide alliance to end homelessness
Our Vision
United Way of Hudson County knows there are solutions to the obstacles people in the community face as they live, work, and provide a home for themselves and their families. Everyone is entitled to a good quality of life free of hardship. With easy access to health care and other important resources, individuals will rise above economic struggles. To support this vision, we will utilize the resources we have to:
- Energize and inspire government leaders and representatives of the corporate and non-profit sectors to face our communities’ complex issues while finding solutions
- Involve support human care agendas within our communities
- Gather money, goods, and volunteer services to administer support throughout local charities.
- Work closely with companies, foundations, and government organizations to help craft philanthropic strategies for the people we serve
- Build coalitions around these strategies
- Increase investments by expanding and diversifying our own development efforts
- Measure, communicate, and learn from the impact of our efforts
- Respect, serve, and advocate for every individual in our culturally and economically diverse communities
Our United Way History
United Way began in 1887 in Denver, Colorado, when a priest, two ministers and a rabbi recognized the need for cooperative action to address the needs of their poorest citizens. The Rev. Myron W. Reed, Msgr. William J. O’Ryan, Dean H. Martyn Hart and Rabbi William S. Friedman convened and put together the first united campaign for ten health and welfare agencies. They created an organization to serve as an agent to:
- Collect funds for local charities
- Coordinate relief services
- Counsel and refer clients to cooperating agencies
- Make emergency assistance grants in cases that could not be referred.
That year, these clergymen and the citizens of Denver raised $21,700 and created a movement that would spread throughout the country and that would later become the United Way.
More than 120 years later, United Way continues to focus on the needs of the poor and disenfranchised and to mobilize the caring power of the nation’s communities so that they may join together to make a difference in the lives of the men, women and children who need their help.