We fight for the health, education, financial stability, and resilience of every person in our Central Oregon community. We’re more than fundraisers. We’re changemakers. Since 1953, United Way of Central Oregon has been strengthening communities in Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties and investing locally in our community’s most needed programs and services while simultaneously strengthening our community. We leverage more than dollars. Yes, we are a local fundraiser and a local funder. The money we raise stays here and serves this community. We partner with local nonprofits that address homelessness, child abuse, basic needs, and more through strategically invested grant funding. We are also a convener, bringing together community leaders, government, other funders, nonprofits, and stakeholders, to collaborate and coordinate our efforts to effectively address our most complicated social issues. We are leading a Central Oregon-wide collective action effort to address the impacts of childhood trauma, and to build resilience. We work to improve lives and foster a healthier Central Oregon in 4 main ways: grantmaking, collective action, needs assessment, and philanthropy. Building on our 67-year tradition and assuming a strong role in convening and collaborating with our Central Oregon community allows us to address these root causes of critical issues affecting our community. We remain focused on our community’s human and social service needs to improve lives and create measurable, sustained change in our community. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we rapidly switched gears. As a longstanding, nimble local nonprofit, we have rapidly evolved our priorities to be immediately responsive to new community needs formed by the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ve created 2 Funds to address the fallout of COVID-19 across Central Oregon: an Emergency Response Fund and a Recovery & Resilience Fund.