Below are some of the most common questions about our organization. If you have a question that is not answered here, please email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call 410.547.8000.
Q: What does United Way of Central Maryland (UWCM) do?
A: We have two primary goals:
1) Address basic human needs in Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Harford and Howard counties, as well as Baltimore City.
2) Be an efficient, effective and trusted fundraiser.
In short, we bring our community together to change people’s lives, moving them from crisis to stability. We call together human service experts, corporate partners, government and community leaders to identify outcomes that lead to real change. Then we pull together the resources it takes to ensure change, such as raising financial support, funding and advocating for highly effective human service programs and mobilizing volunteers. When you give, advocate and volunteer with United Way, you strengthen the human service system across our region.
Q: How do you help other nonprofits that provide basic needs and other supportive services?
A: We are a critical source of funding, volunteers and other support to hundreds of front-line agencies across the region and beyond. UWCM saves these organizations substantial administrative, fundraising, customer service and marketing expenses. Through our involvement, expertise and leadership, UWCM helps other nonprofits build their capacity and efficacy at a time when every philanthropic dollar needs to count.
Q: How many agencies does United Way of Central Maryland distribute money to?
A: UWCM distributes funds to more than 1,600 nonprofit agencies each year. Donations are provided to organizations either through direct donor designation or through grants. UWCM provides health and human service organizations with five opportunities throughout the year to compete for grant funding. Community impact grants and awarded at the end of the calendar year and Community Response Grants are awarded quarterly.
Q: Is it true that a person can choose to give to their favorite charity through United Way of Central Maryland?
A: Yes. UWCM’s designation policy encourages philanthropy for the causes people care about. We accept designations for as little as $50.00 ($1 per week) to any health and human service agency in the USA. Most collected designations are awarded to charities monthly.
Q: What is United Way of Central Maryland’s fee to designate?
A: UWCM’s designation fee is a flat rate of 5 percent, with a minimum of $5 and a cap of $500. There is no fee to designate to UWCM, jurisdictions or the 2-1-1 Maryland at UWCM information and referral service.
Q: Why should I give to United Way of Central Maryland when I can give directly to the charities?
A: No one agency or organization can make changes alone. People in need often require the support of multiple services, many of which are often lesser known, but just as important as services with high visibility. By contributing to UWCM, you help ensure the network of services that no one agency or program could provide.
Our trusted experts and knowledgeable staff work with hundreds of partners across the region and know how your funds can do the most good for the most people. They help us understand what the needs are and what resources are already being applied to them, so that we can help close the gap between the services that people need and the services that they are able to obtain. We make nonprofits more efficient by assuming fundraising, marketing and customer service expenses for them. We offer the highest level of accountability -- for ourselves and our partners.
A direct ("undesignated") contribution to UWCM will leverage your dollars alongside our knowledge and expertise, ensuring that your dollar has the most impact. Contributing directly to UWCM, as opposed to designating to an individual charity, truly increases its power to create change.
Q: When does United Way of Central Maryland give donations to the charities?
A: UWCM has five opportunities each year for charities to submit an application to receive grant funding.
Periodically, charities have the opportunity to submit an application to receive Community Impact Grants. Funding decisions are made by local community partnership boards, using poverty and population data as the key criteria for fund distribution.
Quarterly, charities have the opportunity to submit an application to receive Community Response Grants, with decisions being made by UWCM’s local community partnership boards. The Community Response funding provides a mechanism for organizations to request support of up to $7,500 for both programmatic and immediate needs throughout the year, instead of waiting until the periodic competitive funding cycle – allowing UWCM to be responsive to unexpected agency and community needs.
There are no other organizations or foundations in the region that are able to respond to charity and emergency needs as frequently and with such speed as UWCM.
Q: What is your overhead?
A: UWCM is committed to driving down administrative, marketing and fundraising costs relentlessly. UWCM's overhead rate (which is a percentage of total income received) was 17.8 percent in Fiscal Year 2011. This compares favorably with the Better Business Bureau’s Wise Giving Alliance guidelines, which suggest nonprofit overhead should be 35 percent or less.
Q: How is a designation fee different from overhead?
A: The designation fee is a service fee set in advance to cover the cost incurred by UWCM to process a transaction from the donor to the designated charity. Overhead, calculated annually, is the percentage of operating costs compared to total income received. Operating costs include administration, marketing and fundraising expenses.
Q: Does anyone monitor or recognize your work?
A: UWCM has earned the Standards for Excellence credential from the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations for the last ten years, recognizing the highest standards of governance, ethics and accountability. UWCM is one of about 80 nonprofits across the state and just 200 across the country to have earned this seal.
Q: What type of financial oversight do you have?
A: UWCM’s Board of Directors has ultimate responsibility for its financial condition. By way of its Finance Committee, the Board retains an independent auditor who then reports the findings to the Board. Financial statements are audited annually by Ellin & Tucker, Chartered. UWCM consistently receives an unqualified audit.
