(upbeat music) - Welcome to At Issue, I'm H Wayne Wilson thank you so much for joining us on the program.

October the 18th, 1921, the Peoria community fund was formed.

A group of individuals got together and said, we need to do something to make it easier to raise funds for agencies who are doing some good work in the area.

And now 100 years later, the effort is still there.

It's changed considerably since that time.

And we have the president of what is now called the Heart of Illinois United Way in with us to discuss those changes and what the future may look like for the Heart of Illinois United Way.

Jennifer Zammuto President of Heart of Illinois United Way thank you for joining us on At Issue.

- Thanks for having me.

- So, as you look back at a hundred years of history, you've been with the organization for three years, a lot of shoulders that you're standing on to help make this organization still viable how does that make you feel?

- Incredible, this community has been so supportive of the United Way and so many other nonprofits for more than a hundred years.

And we are certainly standing on the shoulders of all the donors, volunteers, and employees and corporations that came before us.

- And we're going to show some videos of individuals who, agencies who made a difference over time in a little while.

But one thing I wanted to talk about first was the evolution of the United way it's, as I mentioned, it started as period community fund and it changed the way it raised funds.

At first it was raising funds more or less reaching out to individuals, and how has that changed?

- When we first started, we had volunteers that would go door to door, knocking on doors and asking if people would be interested in giving back to the community.

And it was started as a way so that people didn't have so many different asks coming their way.

It was one ask that could then help those nonprofits raise money and up about the fifties or sixties, that's the way it was done through a lot of volunteer work.

And in the fifties and sixties, the volunteer work stayed, but we also started doing corporate campaigns.

So going into businesses and educating their employees around the best ways to give back in their community.

- And that's how the collection of money has changed what about the distribution of money?

How has that changed over time?

- It changed a lot, so when we first started, the non-profits would give us their annual budget and then that was the amount of money that we would try to raise that year.

Over time we've adapted to community needs and what the community has asked us to do.

So starting in the 1980s, 1990s, we started funding programs within those agencies, not just overall nonprofit agencies.

And what that means is then we look at each program to see which one is the most efficient and effective at addressing community needs as we see them today.

- So how do you know those programs are the ones to fund?

- Well, I don't the great news is we have lots of volunteers that go in and do this work for us.

So it's not my decision or someone else that works at the United way.

We have a hundred volunteers that sit down each year and they really look under the hood at the work that is done by those nonprofits.

And I always say, it's kinda like investing in the stock market.

If you don't have the expertise or the time to know when to buy, when to sell, how to get the best return on your 401k, you call an expert to do that.

And that's exactly the same thing we do at the United Way for charitable needs.

We look under the hood at those programs to say which programs through those agencies are serving the most people in the most efficient effective way so that we can ensure a donor's dollar gets stretched as far as.

- But there's lots of programs, so how do you know that you should be funding this type of program versus this type of program?

- Well we look at three issue areas, we focus on education, financial stability, and health.

And then within each of those areas, we compare programs to each other.

We also every three years, we do a community assessment with Bradley University.

So we can look at what the needs are in the community and make sure that those programs are addressing those things.

We also have a 211, which is our information and referral line.

So if anyone has a need that isn't a medical need, they can call 211 and get referred to one of our programs.

And what that does too, is we can see on a day to day basis, where are people asking for needs and what areas of our community and what kinds of needs are they asking for?

Whether it's housing, food, domestic violence, and so much more.

- We've been talking about agencies, how many agencies and how many programs currently are funded?

- We have 47 partner agencies, and we have 88 programs that we fund this year.

- And I think it's six of those agencies that were partner agencies back in 1935 are still partner agencies today and we have a film from 1935, that Gina Edwards who's the vice president of marketing at United Way found and here are the boy Scouts.

And so talk about partner agencies, what does that mean?

- To be a partner agency with the Heart of Illinois United Way means that these agencies are willing to work with us each year to ensure that they are meeting community needs.

And that they're willing to go through this data driven process with us so that we can measure how efficient and effective they're being with us.

- And when I first saw this 1935 film, I thought back and I thought, you know what, and these are all agencies that we recognize.

- [Jennifer] Right.

- [H] And you're still helping them today, but you're doing it on a program basis, not just general funds to the agency.

- [Jennifer] Right, and we really believe that, whether you're giving back of your charitable dollar or investing in your 401k, it's important to understand where your dollars are going.

How much overhead are we looking at?

Which programs are efficient and effective, not every program and every agency is funded because they may not all align with the issues that we look at at the Heart of Illinois United Way.

- [H] The importance of corporate support.

I wanna talk a little bit about that, because you said in 1960 or so you changed the way you were raising funds.

How, does a corporation contribute?

Because in January, early February of every year, you talk about the campaign success, you raised $9 million plus this past year, and you always have those corporations while then in this category, this corporation, this Corp, what's a workplace campaign.

- Workplace campaign, essentially if you think back to when they were going door to door, as volunteers trying to raise money, we go into businesses and we help companies and employees understand the best ways of giving back.

And I always say whether you want to give at United Way to one of our partner agencies or to our impact fund, or you care about animals or sports or a particular cause that's important to you and your family, that's really important, you should follow your heart, but there's a lot of data behind that decision making.

And we really believe in using the data and our hearts as we make these decisions.

- Are you concerned as a corporate support can change over time?

Are you concerned about the future in terms of fundraising for the United Way.

- I think any fundraiser who didn't say they were concerned about future fundraising would be lying.

We're always looking to the future and always working to make sure that we are changing and adapting to the environment we're in.

And so we're continually diversifying and adding new companies and we certainly don't just rely on one or two.

We have 300 companies that we talk with every single year and we're continually adding new ones as well.

And we just really believe in educating people on the best ways to invest their charitable dollar.

- Then you still have an individual campaign as well.

- Of course, yes, we still we love talking with individuals we have so many individuals that help us both on the volunteer side with their talents and also giving back.

- We're gonna talk about volunteering just a minute, because we have a video most from the corporate individual of view, we'll talk about volunteers, but Katie McCord Jenkins, who is with Illinois Mutual, we had an opportunity to talk to her earlier and we'll show you that interview right now.

- So it's exciting to see, the United Way celebrating its hundredth anniversary.

And, we were talking, trying to figure out how long exactly have we been a corporate supporter of the United Way?

And, we're thinking it's probably been 50 years, we're pretty darn close.

And so, it's great to feel like we've been a part of the history of this organization for as long as we have been.

So we spend time helping them understand these are the agencies that are supported by the United Way.

And the programs, that are supported by the United Way.

And that does play a big role in that participation and that support that people have, because, there's so many agencies, it would be hard for somebody not find an agency or a program that they want to support, and then after that, it's just, our culture, we aim to build a culture of a team of people who wanna give back giving back to their community is something that matters to them.

Well, how does the United Way figure out where to allocate the funds that are raised the programs?

How do they choose the programs to support, , and that, there's an understanding that that is fueled by, research that's done, on a periodic basis and there're understanding of the needs and the community.

And then it's, fueled by the work of all the volunteers that are part of that process for the United Way.

- We already talked about that process, but what I wanna talk about is one word that she said, and that was culture.

Is there a certain culture in terms of giving and then seeing the benefits?

- I think, yes, absolutely.

I think we have a culture here in our region that is very unique.

We don't see this the same in other areas we're learning a lot about the way that other cities work and typically in large cities or on the coast, you have a lot more mobility and you don't have the same kinda culture that we have here in Central Illinois.

And I think you see from the history, we have had a strong history of giving back to our communities and one of our volunteers Art Oakford, still volunteers with us and his grandfather was our first treasurer.

So you can see these roots that are so deep in Central Illinois.

And I think that that culture permeates who we are today.

And I think it's also a great opportunity for companies to take their culture and share it with their employees.

And as a business giving back being part of who you are is something you can share with employees and I think it makes them feel great about working there.

- I wanna talk about relationships because Katie is the daughter of Mike McCord, the late Mike McCord and Mike was very dedicated to the Heart of Illinois United Way.

And the relationships are strong in this community over time, how important is it in terms of raising funds?

- Well I think it's about trust, and I think when you are doing the kind of work that we're doing, if people don't trust you and they don't trust the work of the partner agencies and the way you do the work, it's very difficult to keep that thread of people continually wanting to give back.

- You mentioned the name of Oakford.

Many people know Art and Judy Oakford volunteers in the community.

Art is a campaign ambassador, Judy used to be on the board at United Way, I believe.

But Art, his family has been dedicated to the United Way for a long time.

And here is Mr. Oakford, this is Aaron Oakford, and he was critical to the formation of United Way years ago.

- [Jennifer] He was Art didn't even know that his grandfather was so involved with us until we started digging into the archives.

So there are lots of family connections to other folks have come forward and said, that person is my relative I didn't know that they were involved with United Way back in the day.

- [H] And we also have Mr. Heidrick and Mr. Heidrick actually donated the house that is the headquarters of United Way right now.

- [Jennifer] That's right, there are lots of Heidrick families around here and we're still at the house at 5 or 9 west high street that his family donated to us back in the forties.

- And you mentioned door to door and the woman who started the volunteer bureau in the 1940s was Mrs.

Page the newspaper clippings always refer to Mrs. Theodore Page Junior, I believe once the name, but her daughter happens to be Sally Snyder.

And Sally was one of the ones who went door to door I think that was in Peoria Heights when she lived there.

And we had an opportunity to talk to Sally Snyder about that experience and more.

- In the old days United Way, didn't have all the corporate kinds of things that they do today.

And we went door to door I lived in the Heights, we went door to door, to all the little stores in the Heights and asked for, the dime store and so forth for money for United Way.

I can remember tagging along as a youngster, doing that with my mother who had a certain area that she was covering, I think United way is so positioned to do a good study so that indeed they are using the community that decides what their needs are, not what any individual decides and I trust them.

Sometimes we only see United Way and we think, oh, they're just out raising money.

No, there's an important part of what they do 'cause you can't spend what you don't have.

But honestly the most important thing they do is how they give back.

- And how do you give back?

- I think that's the most important thing that we do and I think most people don't understand it, which is what most, non-profits say.

Most people don't realize the data-driven process that's the behind the way that we invest the community's dollars.

And it's just like investing in the stock market we look at so many different data points to help us make data-driven decisions around where we can get the best return on investment and how we're serving people in the best way we can and that's the best way you can change a community.

- And we you do the every three years study with Bradley University, determined community needs, but I think more importantly, do you collaborate with other organizations because you can't work in a silo.

- We can't and we collaborate all the time, I feel like we say collaboration constantly.

I think one of the most interesting projects that we've been working on recently through the CEO council and talking with the EDC, the EDC is working to try to bring more business .

to our area but in the order to do that, they have to have a strong workforce.

So we formed this collaborative committee that includes businesses, the CEO council, the EDC, ICC Bradley University, Eureka College everyone's involved nonprofits included so that we can help address these big challenges.

So if we can get people certified, they can get better jobs and they can get a family sustaining wage and really change both their family life and our economy as a whole.

- Are there stories that have changed the way you approach your mission?

- I don't think our mission has changed really very much, even from the very beginning, our mission is to serve this community in the best way possible to ensure we all have the opportunity to have a great life, but the way that we do it has changed over time.

And I think we have to transform and adjust if we stayed the same that we were we first started, we probably wouldn't be here today.

- I want to talk about challenges, World War II was a challenge and the United Way responded.

If you actually changed the way you operate it back, and I know you weren't there, and then there was the 2013 tornado that came through peak in East Peoria and most notably Washington.

- We have been here for central Illinois through pandemics and wars and recessions.

And I think we raised almost $2 million for the war fund back in the back in the day.

But then when things happen like the crisis we're in today or the tornado we were also able to raise funds and thank goodness we had 211 at that time as well because people were able to call and find the services that they needed very, very quickly.

- You mentioned 211 earlier that's a United Way funded program.

It's operated in conjunction with AMT ambulance service.

I bring up 211, because anyone could benefit at any time in the future by United Way funded agencies.

- It's true, I think maybe we tend to think about, oh, that's other people, other people have these problems, other people have challenges.

I think especially during the last 18 months, we've all seen that none of us are immune from mental health challenges, from the day to day stressors of life.

And many of the challenges that people face are not just socioeconomic, but there are challenges with your children or your parents, or maybe you have a child that has a health need.

And so I've called 211 myself after the Tornado there are so many resources in this community.

And I think our 211 is one of the best in the country because we update the information every single day.

So we're not sending someone to a pantry that is an open or to a bed at salvation army that isn't there.

We're always making sure that we have up to date information 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

And the team that runs that 211 call center is incredible.

- The large majority of your funds goes to those ADA programs, but you do fund 211 and you fund another program called S3.

- Right, S3 is supporting student success.

And even before the last 18 months, we realized that there was a need for supporting students' mental health in schools.

And so we fund a variety of different kinds of programs, depending on the need in that classroom.

We've seen even simple changes from things like changing out the chairs and the seating options in a classroom or giving them some more options, allowed students to learn differently.

And we had a teacher that told us that once she got the grant for her classroom to change the seating and to get some training for that teacher on how to help those students, she saw much less referrals to the principal's office and much less truancy because the kids were wanting to come to school every day.

- So the United Way saw a need and said, we need to develop a program.

And was that the case for the homeless continuum of care?

Now it existed beforehand, but you've absorbed the continuum of care?

- Right, the way that it works when federal dollars come into a community for homelessness, they require that there is a continuum, which is essentially a grouping of all the housing providers coming together to use best practices and to make sure that we are using the same resources the best way.

And so we run home for all, which is our homeless continuum of care.

And then the most amazing statistic is that we have reduced homelessness in our community, in our six county region by 49% since 2009 49% is a huge change for looking at something like homelessness.

- You mentioned the Tri-County area United Way goes beyond that in serving programs, right?

- Its Peoria, Tazewell, Woodford, Marshall, Putnam and Stark counties and our homeless continuum of care also covers Fulton county as well.

- What do you see as the challenges in the future?

- Well, I think the best thing that we can do is continually be ready for change.

And I'm always telling my team, we've just gotta be ready for change every single day.

And I think the more that we can be prepared for that, the more we can be prepared to address the root causes of challenges.

We can't just try to band aid problems.

We've got to look at the root cause of a problem, how do we address it?

And then also deal with the short term and the long term issues.

If someone's hungry, we can't just say, well, we're working on a long-term solution we'll get back to you.

We've got to address the short term needs and the long-term needs by using data driven results and I think caring about people too.

- You've probably already answered this in part, but if someone contributes to the Heart of Illinois United Way, either through their corporate campaign or individually, how do they know, where's the transparency so that they can be comfortable knowing that my contribution did make a difference and know it?

- Well, there are all kinds of different ways that we can do that.

One if you talk to one of our partner agencies, I'm sure they'll tell you.

It's a very rigorous process that they go through to be invested through the Heart of Illinois United Way.

And we certainly have all kinds of information on our website, more information than anyone would probably ever want to see if you're trying to fall asleep at night, we've got all kinds of data that helps support the information that we share and to prove out the value of the return on investment that we bring to our community.

- And they can always call the United Way, I suppose.

- They certainly could.

And we've got all kinds of data on our website too, that shows, 85% of students that go through this program are successful for example.

- You've been at the helm for three years, as you look back, and of course you're celebrating your 100th anniversary and you've done a lot of research in looking at the history, but, what if you walked away, what image have you walked away with?

Having looked back at the 97 years that preceded your leadership.

- I'm a data person and I love data and I love using data to make decisions, but you cannot ignore the human component of all of this.

People have been driving the way that we work from the very beginning, people are the reason why we do this work, because we want to ensure that mother that's pregnant, that doesn't have anywhere to live, can get housed and have a safe start for her life and her baby's life.

And the people that have gotten us to this point are the reason why we're here today.

We are standing on their shoulders, and we're just so honored to have worked with so many incredible people over the year.

- And in the three years you've been president, is there a moment or a story or an issue that really said we're going in the right way?

- There are so many different stories and issues.

Our partner agencies always give us success stories as they come in.

And some of these stories are incredibly heartbreaking and touching.

When you hear about a student that gets a mentor and for the first time really feels confident in themselves or a family that goes to the center for prevention of abuse, or a child that goes through children's home.

The stories are unending and many times it's just so wonderful to hear about the successes and students that have been able to go on and have successful lives because they went through these programs as they were moving from.

- Jennifer Zammuto President of the Heart of Illinois United Way, I appreciate your sharing.

100 years of history and look forward to a 100 more, I suppose.

- Thank you for being part of our journey.

- All right and thank you for joining us on At Issue.

We'll be back next time with another edition of At Issue this time, we're gonna have a similar theme of the American red cross Amarin and the Statefarm have teams that go out when there's a disaster in this nation, in this nation a flood, a hurricane, we're going to talk to representatives of those three organizations on how Central Illinois responds to natural disasters.

Join us for the next At Issue.

(upbeat music)