The United Way of Dane County, long recognized for its work in combatting community problems, is in the midst of its 2024 fundraising campaign and needs your support now more than ever.

As its president and CEO, Renee Moe often points out that while Madison and the rest of Dane County are often cited as being among the best places to live and raise a family, nearly 11% of our population lives in poverty, enough to fill three quarters of the seats at Camp Randall.

United Way has traditionally served as an umbrella organization for most of the county’s nonprofits, a single place where individuals can make a donation that, in turn, is distributed to nonprofits that deal with specific causes and problems.

But what I like about today’s United Way is its efforts to locate the areas of greatest need and concentrate resources there — the achievement gap in our schools, the impact of homelessness on too many children, the racial disparities in health care, are but a few examples. As important, the agency follows through to assess how the programs are working in solving the problems.

It’s estimated that during 2023 some 73,000 residents of Dane County received assistance that was funded by United Way. That included early childhood programing that provided home visits to those with unique needs, reading assistance to those behind in school, income help for impoverished families, efforts to fight drug addiction, just for starters.

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MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – Calls to United Way of Dane County’s 211 helpline are increasing, and local organizations like Second Harvest Foodbank are also seeing the rise in demand.

United Way’s 211 helpline is a free and confidential service that connects people to hundreds of resources, from legal assistance to mental and physical health services.

“People are living on the knife’s edge in a lot of situations,” 211 Director Ed Wall said. “So they’re looking for help, they’re looking for resources to help them get by and we’ve seen substantial increase in our call demand looking for things like food, like rent, housing and utilities assistance.”

This year, calls for housing and food assistance are up 80% compared to last year at United Way.

Second Harvest Foodbank, which partners with United Way, is seeing that demand in action, according to Second Harvest Media and Public Relations Manager Kristopher Tazelaar.

“Food insecurity in Dane county right now is at its height. we’ve got almost 130,000 people right in our in 16 counties right here in Wisconsin who struggle with hunger,” Tazelaar said. “Over 40,000 of those are kids. so hunger exists, hunger is in your neighborhood. hunger is in your church, in your school, at your grocery store.”

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MADISON (WKOW) – The United Way of Dane County and the 211 Call Center are seeing a significant rise in calls, with demand continuing to grow.

The 211 hotline is an essential resource for many in the greater Madison area. When someone needs help, they can simply make a phone call, and a dedicated team member is ready to assist.

“Calls could be anything from assistance with finding housing, assistance with rent payment, utility payment…finding food,” said Ed Wall, Director of United Way of Dane County’s 211 Program. “Food and housing are always our top two issues people need help with.”

Last year, the United Way of Dane County reported that 211 helped 27,000 people connect with 47,000 resources. Since the pandemic, the need for assistance has increased. While based in Dane County, the service also supports seven surrounding counties.

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United Way of Dane County kicked off its community campaign at Breese Stevens Field with its United Carnival on Wednesday.

United Way held a carnival to kick off its newest community campaign. The carnival saw 550 attendees who had the opportunity to engage in family-friendly fun, volunteer and hear about rising community needs United Way aims to address in the campaign. The goal for the campaign is to raise $17.3 million, but United Way wanted to hear what the community wanted to see from its efforts.

The slogan for the community campaign is, “Be one of the ones.” Renee Moe, CEO of United Way of Dane County, wants to move the conversation on community giving back to be centered on how people can really make a difference.

“Be one of the ones to care. Be one of the ones to step up if you’re feeling isolated or if you’re feeling like you’re not being heard,” Moe said. “Let us help connect the dots, get people proximate to your story and to ways that we can make a difference. That’s the call to action.”

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MADISON, Wis. (WMTV) – Madison resident, Natasha Dieter, cherishes her job as a baker in-training which she did not have eight months ago. In January, she was unable to pay her bills and was sleeping in her car.

“I became homeless in January of this year, ended up at the Beacon a lot because I had nowhere to go, and I was tired of sleeping and sitting in my car,” said Dieter.

It was at the Beacon, a social services organization, that she said she saw a light at the end of the tunnel.

“While I was at the Beacon, I saw there was a sign and a representative from Just Bakery was there telling about the program and I already love to bake and I was like this is a sign from heaven that I need to go here,” she said.

That is exactly what she did. After applying, she said that they gave her a chance as a baker, but also another chance at life.

“They saved my life,” said Dieter.

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Hundreds of worthy charitable organizations help people in the Madison area with specific missions such as clean lakes, adult literacy, the arts and more.

So why give to the bigger, broader, century-old United Way of Dane County?

Larry Barton, who is leading this year’s fundraising campaign, offers a compelling reason — and life story — to encourage donations and volunteering.

Barton, CEO of Strang Inc., a Madison-based architecture, engineering, interior design and planning firm, was 7 years old when his father’s alcoholism broke up his family. He and his brother spent the next five years in deep poverty, bouncing from apartment to apartment with their father.

Sometimes Barton went to school, sometimes not. He was “hungry probably more often than not,” he told the State Journal editorial board recently.

At rock bottom, his father was living out of a car with Barton and his brother. Sometimes the boys slept in a park. When neighbors called police, Barton was taken to a juvenile facility for three months while his father sought treatment.

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