As United Way of the Cape Fear Area celebrates its 75th anniversary this year, CEO Chris Nelson marks the start of his eighth year at the helm. He spoke recently about the organization’s history and his own.
 

GWBJ: United Way of the Cape Fear Area dates its beginnings to 1941, right? 
 

Chris Nelson: Yes. It started out as Community Chest, part of the National Association of Community Chests. With the outbreak of war, local leaders got together to focus on war chests, war relief, USO, orphans – organizations that were part of all Community Chests in the country, which also supported Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, YMCA, YWCA, Salvation Army and so forth. 

From [Community Chest], we became Red Feather, then United Funds. Then, in 1972, nationally they went to United Way, although we here did not make the change until 1975.
 

GWBJ: What changes have you seen since you came to UWCFA in 2009?
 

CN: The biggest change is the donors’ desire to see their charitable gifts have measurable impact rather than taking a broad, shotgun approach; that their gift is targeted, and they can see a specific result. 
 

GWBJ: What is the most common misconception about UWCFA?
 

CN: The biggest misconception about us is that we are a national or international organization. That’s a good reason why some people may not want to give: They want to have local impact. But we are locally owned and operated. United Way [an international organization] is the umbrella that provides the brand and provides services to local United Ways. 

The United Way organization also requires us to go through an annual certification, which means we meet some basic, fundamental standards. We pay 1 percent of what we raise each year to United Way, but 99 percent stays here. 
 

GWBJ: Have you spent your entire career with United Way organizations?
 

CN: This has been my career: 42 years as a United Way professional. I started in Kalamazoo, Michigan, working with the grants process, and then went to take over United Way of Wooster, Ohio. After that, I went to become the head of United Way of the Coastal Bend in Corpus Christi, Texas. I returned to Michigan as CEO of United Way of Michigan, a statewide organization. Michigan is unique: It has its own statewide grants process.

Working at the statewide level removed me from everything I loved about United Way: seeing the local impact. The state is too big for that. I was fortunate that this [Wilmington] position came open.
 

GWBJ: What was your biggest challenge coming in to UWCFA?
 

CN: I think the biggest challenge is that donors wanted to see specific targets and how we were doing in hitting those targets. We were transitioning into this model, and direct service providers were as well. 

The good news for me was the community and this organization’s board agreed that we wanted to become that, instead of having designated partner agencies [agencies UWCFA would keep funding automatically].
 

GWBJ: How has that changed the way you operate?
 

CN: We are investing in programs that are changing people’s lives, and it has changed our relationship with our partner agencies. Recipients are sustainable, setting priorities with the money. 

We now operate on a three-year cycle. Each grant is for three years, and each year we rotate among our three focus areas: education, health care and financial stability. 

It’s a better system. You can set benchmarks and see how you are doing. In most cases [grant recipients] are producing more than they told us they would. The volunteers who review grant applications tell us there has been a dramatic improvement in the applications they are seeing.

We provide people with transparency, and we feel very strongly about the accountability of where we invest our money. For an organization to even start getting money from us there is a rigorous certification process. There are 35 standards they need to meet. 
 

GWBJ: Talk about a few programs for which UWCFA is the overseeing agency.
 

CN: We’re in the seventh year of the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness [following a national best practices model]. Every region [in North Carolina] has a continuum of care, involving specialists in dealing with homeless individuals. We treat their symptoms, meet their needs and get them housed. [NHRMC] now is funding it entirely, but the money flows through our office.

We also have our medical respite program, working with the hospital. When a chronically homeless person is discharged, they no longer need a bed in the hospital but shouldn’t be discharged into the woods. We are the overseer. We take the patient and put him up for two weeks in one of two rooms we rent in a local motel. During that time, Good Shepherd provides meals and medical transportation. So far, 60 people have come through this program and only one has been kicked out for drinking or using drugs.

These programs allow us to establish relationships with homeless individuals, and through them we’ve reduced chronic homelessness in this community by 70 percent. 

Another program is our senior aides. It’s a federal program where we place people over age 55 who meet certain income criteria in jobs where they work 20-30 hours per week at minimum wage. For most of them, it’s extra income that allows them to remain independent. Some build skills and work their way into better jobs. 

GWBJ: What is the organization’s biggest ongoing challenge?
 

CN: Clearly, it’s raising enough resources to meet the needs. This year we are focusing on financial stability. We had $1.2 million in requests and are able to fund $305,000 of that. 

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