It’s not quite a merger but two United Way affiliates in Ohio will be working more closely in 2021. The boards of United Way of Central Ohio and United Way of Union County approved an affiliation agreement on Nov. 17, which will take effect on Jan. 1.
Each organization will retain its separate tax ID status but Union County’s board will become an advisory board to the affiliate with Central Ohio adding two board members to its 24-member board and become the governing board of both affiliates.
“In our community, we’ve had some good success with this affiliate agreement, and so it’s become a model that our community looks at when you look at continuum all the way from partnering to merging,” Lisa Courtice, president and CEO of the United Way of Central Ohio, said. “It’s working well in our community. Some elements are easy to implement compared to a merger but it sets you up for a merger,” she said.
Under the new agreement, Union County’s 1.5 employees will be on the Central Ohio payroll, with Director Corinne Bix reporting to Courtice. It will maintain its name and local nature of philanthropy, funding and service delivery, as well as its staff and offices.
“By partnering with United Way of Central Ohio, we will be able to run our organization more efficiently by sharing resources and improving access to corporate funding,” Bix said in a press release announcing the agreement. “While we will share a partnership with a larger organization, our focus on serving the people of Union County remains the same as all funding raised in Union County will stay in Union County,” she said.
“It’s particularly advantageous since most affiliates are really small. They can tap into the buying power as a larger United Way, in terms of benefits for employees,” Courtice said.
There are 15 counties in the central Ohio area served by an independent United Way. Prior to the affiliate agreement, United Way of Central Ohio was one of only three affiliates in major markets across the country serving one county.
“We believe a regional approach to our work would be advantageous to all of us,” Courtice said, adding that the central Ohio area is expected to grow by 1 million people over the next 30 years. “As we work toward greater efficiencies and alignment, the more we can work together the better. Our business community has done a very good job of doing that. Otherwise, we’re looking at artificial lines that were set up a long time ago,” she said.
COVID threw a wrench into the process but it took about two years to culminate the agreement. “I’ve been doing this long enough to realize that it is not something that happens overnight,” said Courtice, who joined the Columbus-based affiliate almost four years ago from the Columbus Foundation. “Any merger or affiliate agreement, it doesn’t matter the size, it’s just as complicated,” she said.
The move was prompted by the decline in workplace campaigns as well as the awareness that smaller affiliates can benefit from infrastructure that they would never be able to afford, Courtice said. “Our corporate partners really are calling for this,” she said, adding that it will serve corporate partners better. For instance, Nationwide Insurance is the biggest funder of both organizations.
“It’s a future-focused strategy that takes into consideration our transient population,” Courtice said. “By blurring county lines, we can be united in our efforts to serve at-risk communities today and for decades to come.”
United Way of Central Ohio is the larger of the two affiliates, by far. It reported $28.7 million in revenue for the year ended March 2020, with net assets of $19.4 million. The Marysville-based Union County affiliate reported revenue of almost $650,000, with net assets of about $841,000, according to unaudited 2019 financials.
In early 2020, United Way of Central Ohio eliminated about 16 positions to address a funding shortfall, leaving it with about 40 employees.
