United Way of New York City’s Impact

United Way of New York City (UWNYC) is dedicated to helping low-income New Yorkers make ends meet and lead thriving lives. With many of the barriers to achieving economic mobility stemming from decades of systemic racism, our work has and continues to be deeply rooted in racial equity and social justice. UWNYC knows this community better than any other organization and has the capacity and resources to rally cross-sector partners into action. Year-round we work to help individuals and families gain access to quality education and the opportunity to lead healthy and financially secure lives. And when our community needs us most, we respond to the call including our COVID-19 relief and recovery efforts, addressing health disparities in Black communities, supporting Black-owned businesses, and laying the foundation for new social and economic opportunities through our Campaign for Equity.  Our greatest impact comes from our ability to pivot quickly to adjust current programs and create new ones that would best serve our City and the people who need our support. 

The Results

Last year, United Way of New York City raised more than $17 million and received more than $275,000 in in-kind services to respond to the COVID-19 crisis. This money funded more than 300 community based organizations fueled by the investments of more than 1,270 individual donors, 45 institutions, and 31 longstanding corporate partnerships.

For more impact reports from United Way of New York City, click here.

Our impact could not be possible without the incredible help from our volunteer leaders. Meet the people behind our Tocqueville Society, Women United, and Young Leaders Council!

Our Stories of Success

Financial Support for Families 
UWNYC partner, LIFT NY, works with families to provide financial, social, and personal support. The COVID-19 Pandemic severely impacted the LIFT community, leaving 90% of their members without income. In response, UWNYC’s COVID-19 Community Fund allocated critical dollars toward LIFT’s mission to get financial support into the hands of struggling families.  

LIFT member Martha recalls the necessary support this funding provided for herself, her husband, and their two children.  

“We used the relief funds for the rent and to cover a few important items like water and toilet paper for our home. The funds helped us a lot. If not, I don’t know what we would have done. I think that at best I could have paid the rent, but not the lights or the phone. We had already taken all of the money I had saved from the past year for other necessities. I don’t know what we would have done without the support.”  

Technology to Strengthen Our Nonprofits 
Hunger Free NYC provides critical support for New Yorkers to gain access to benefits like SNAP and other food supports.  Throughout the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, their work proved to be both increasingly necessary and especially difficult as the need for their services soared significantly.  Staff members working from home on lightweight, portable tablets found that the technology couldn’t handle the amount of data entry that is usually done on the office desktop. UWNYC’s Covid Community Fund provided laptops and technology to staff to continue the critical food support enrollments—ensuring that hungry New Yorkers could get the help they needed. “It would be difficult to operate if we didn’t receive the donation from United Way. UWNYC definitely stepped up, and I was very grateful,” shared Denise Fernandez, Executive Director, Hunger Free NYC. 

Innovation Through Collaboration 
In New York City, 1.4 million New Yorkers don’t know where their next meal will come from, and nearly 3 million New Yorkers regularly have trouble affording healthy food. In an effort to address food insecurity and close the supply gap, UWNYC joined the Food Assistance Collaborative—teaming up with key players to address hunger, increase food provider capacity, share information, and improve client experience. A major accomplishment of the Collaboration was the development of an innovative app: Plentiful, a free, mobile reservation tool for food pantries and clients. Plentiful is making it easier for hungry New Yorkers to locate pantries in their area using any smart phone to download the app or text, search and locate an emergency food provider, make a reservation, and easily pick up food at a scheduled time. This technology enables pantries to better serve their clients by eliminating pen and paper tracking, providing instant communication with clients, helping decrease wait times from hours to minutes, and offering a translation tool available in nine different languages. Most importantly, Plentiful is helping New Yorkers access food with greater dignity.  

“Plentiful’s translation capability was the greatest idea they had,” said Pedro Rodriguez, Director of La Jornada in Flushing, NY. “It changed the way we communicate with our clients. What used to require hours of manual translation and outreach can now be done nearly instantaneously, and in the client’s preferred language—it’s incredible!” Understanding language preferences is a huge stride in breaking down barriers between emergency food providers and their clients, offering important cultural context. Mr. Rodriguez shared that he has more than 400 clients whose preferred language is Bengali.  

“I had no idea,” he said, excitedly. “This will help me make culturally-conscious choices as I order for the pantry. The more we can do to make the experience pleasant for our clients, the better.” To date, Plentiful has reached more than 130,000 households in New York City—about 25% of households that use emergency food services—and continues to grow. 

ReadNYC: Living Up to Full Potential  
UWNYC’s ReadNYC program, works to ensure New York City’s teachers are equipped with the resources and support they need to teach students in underserved communities.  Teachers receive coaching support from ReadNYC through the Equity Scholars Program, run by one of our partners.  “The support through Equity scholars has impacted my practice, myself, and my students in empowering ways,” shared Kelly Jo Barber, a teacher who has received coaching through the ReadNYC Equity Scholars Program. “I had to acknowledge and dispel the myths that students from the Bronx have parents that don’t care, that all fathers are in prison, and kids are unmotivated. I had to drop my savior complex and see these kids for who they are as individuals.” As a result of coaching, Barber began to listen to her students more and was able to establish relationships of trust, empowering her students’ progress.  

Additionally, Barber created her classroom library by areas of interest instead of reading level. “I strive to have a library in which my kids see themselves reflected,” shared Barber. “This work has made my students’ interest in both reading and writing increase. Every year since working with Equity Scholars, my students learn to identify themselves as readers by finding books that they truly love, books that leave them thirsty for the next book.” When asked how the support from ReadNYC has impacted her classroom, Barber replied, “My work with Equity Scholars has empowered both myself and my students to live up to our full potential as humans and learners.”  

Stabilizing Families Through Eviction Prevention 
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House is a recipient of United Way of New York City’s Emergency Food and Shelter Program (EFSP)—funding that provides financial support to low-income New Yorkers on an emergency basis to prevent hunger, preserve housing, provide shelter, and support basic needs. With the funding Lenox Hill received from UWNYC , combined with pro-bono legal services, they were able to change the lives of 47-year old Ms. C and her two daughters. Ms. C is a single mother who, after a terrible accident, suffered severe and debilitating injuries that required multiple surgeries and prevented her from working. The family began to fall behind in their rent and were facing possible court eviction. To alleviate their situation, UWNYC’s EFSP funding provided Ms. C with one month of rental assistance while Lenox Hill Neighborhood House provided pro-bono legal advice and other basic needs like food, Medicaid, and disability benefits. This combination of these services not only prevented a family from spiraling into a major crisis, but also got them back up on their feet—ensuring financial stability, positive well-being, and most importantly the security to remain in their home. Ms. C is just one example of how eviction prevention funding can steady a family on the path toward self-sufficiency. This year, EFSP allocated nearly $2.3 million toward eviction prevention, and served more than 2,700 households with rent and utility assistance. 

FeedNYC Empowering Providers, Expanding Services
West Harlem Group Assistance Inc. (WHGA) is a community development organization on a mission to strengthen the economic vitality of Harlem. One of their programs, Communities for Healthy Food, has been providing Harlem residents with client-choice pantry service, nutrition education, on-site Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as food stamps) benefits enrollment, and aims to address issues of diet-related disease. As a recipient of United Way of New York City’s Hunger Prevention and Nutrition Assistance Program (HPNAP) Grant, WHGA is able to purchase fresh and frozen produce, providing balanced and nutritious food packages to the over 5,000 clients they serve each month. However, the limitation of their pantry size had only allowed them to bring six people inside at a time—making it a slow process to meet the demand.  

Through United Way’s HPNAP team and their workshops, the pantry then learned about the Plentiful App—a free mobile reservation and communication tool for food pantries and clients—which became instrumental in expanding WHGA’s capacity by fivefold. “With Plentiful, we can now service 20-30 people at once,” said Antaeus Turns-Ashcraft, Communities for Healthy Food advocate. “The line complaints have reduced tremendously, and people are able to move inside much more quickly. Through Plentiful we have all the client information and can easily search for clients and verify family sizes.”  

Clients love Plentiful too! The messaging feature allows the pantry to communicate quickly with their clients can translate into nine different languages, and alerts clients when fresh produce and other perishable items are available outside of the regular pantry operating time. “For someone who needs food, getting a message that there is extra food available outside of pantry times is like a surprise gift and something clients love,” said Turns-Ashcroft. “If we hadn’t partnered with United Way of New York City, perhaps we could have found a solution to our service problem, but it would have been much harder and taken much longer. Now our pantry runs smoothly and operates more effectively.”