Who We Are

United Way of Greater St. Louis mobilizes the community with one goal in mind - helping people live their best possible lives.

Mobilizing Donors & Volunteers

It takes just a single person to initiate change. United Way connects people with causes close to their hearts and inspires them to roll up their sleeves in their community.

Mobilizing Organizations

United Way convenes and collaborates with organizations across sectors to surround our community's most critical problems. Because no one can solve them alone.

Mobilizing Companies

Local businesses are the economic engine for our community. United Way helps them leverage their people and resources to connect to causes that are important to them.

Community

United Way of Greater St. Louis is the place where people of our community come together in the spirit of teamwork and servant leadership to share our responsibility to care for one another.

Stewardship

As excellent stewards of financial and human resources entrusted to us, United Way of Greater St. Louis ensures that those resources are effectively developed and properly invested to achieve optimum impact in the community.

Integrity

We are an integral part of this community's leadership; we conduct ourselves with the highest regard for trust, fairness, ethics and respect for one another.

Volunteers

Volunteers are our foundation and most valuable resource. We were founded by volunteers and are a volunteer-directed organization.

Autonomy

We take responsibility for directing and managing this organization and in partnership with our agencies, we meet our community's critical human service needs.

Diversity

United Way of Greater St. Louis values and is committed to the richness of diversity in all aspects of our organization and those with whom we partner and serve.

Compassion

We are a catalyst for change, creating awareness of needs and celebrating successes in caring for one another and in creating a more compassionate community.

DIVERSITY, EQUITY AND INCLUSION

We value and are committed to the richness of diversity in all aspects of our organization, our partners and those we serve. Our internal Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee continues to develop strategies that recognize diverse experiences in the workplace, advise staff leadership to create a more diverse, inclusive and equitable work environment and evaluate our progress.

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Our History

United Way was formed in 1887 when a Denver priest, two ministers and a rabbi recognized the need for cooperative action to address their city’s welfare problems. The first campaign raised $21,700 for 22 nonprofits.

United Way of Greater St. Louis began in 1922 as the Community Fund, organized by volunteers to raise money to help operate 40 charities.

By the 1950s, more than 1,000 communities across the U.S. and Canada had established United Ways. In 1974, United Ways raised nearly $1.04 billion, marking the first time in history that a single organization raised more than $1 billion in an annual campaign. Over its long history, United Way has helped with everything from the Persian Gulf War to the Olympic torch relay to the President’s Summit for America’s Future. It’s won awards, such as the Charity of Choice from Financial World magazine. Across the country, United Ways now raise more than $4 billion annually.

Today, through United Way’s local partnership with nonprofits, as well as programs and services such as United Way 2-1-1, STLVolunteer, and others, we are able to create a stronger, healthier and more equitable region.