Stocktoberfest Insights with Chris Martin, president and CEO of United Way San Antonio

At United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, our vision is to live in a diverse and thriving community where everyone has the opportunity to achieve their full potential. Chris has been here three years but has worked for the United Way network for 33 years in various roles and communities.

DonateStock: Your mission is to unite its communities to identify and solve critical problems. What are the top 3 challenges you face today?

Chris: Like many communities, San Antonio is experiencing a growing need for our services, particularly “safety net” services for those in immediate need, suffering from a disaster or personal crisis. Our 2-1-1 Help Line answered over 271,000 calls last year and 37 percent of the callers were 25-44 years of age. Our Safety Net partners assisted nearly 750,000 last year in Bexar County. Among our top caller needs are food (669,838), clothing (58,928), emergency shelter (5,843) and utility assistance (6,044).

We were presented with another challenge in 2020 and 2021. At United Way, we work with children, students, individuals and families and one of our Impact Councils focuses on students. Their work includes: increasing reading proficiency by 3rd grade, math proficiency by 8th grade, supporting youth not in school or working, approving school attendance and behavioral referrals. This work was difficult as the school-learning environment and digital divide was in flux and strained from COVID-19 restrictions. Even so, we had an collective achievement of 73 percent of our target audience.

We also discovered that there is a hesitancy to return to in-person campaigns because of the pandemic. We were/are able to engage virtually and through socially distanced in-person meetings.

Another challenge that surfaced during the pandemic is service delivery. A number of our nonprofit partners were impacted while trying to provide direct service to their clients using their pre-COVID business model. If we can’t reach them, we can’t help them. Consequently, measurement and metrics where effected and became more difficult to collect and for us to receive. Many quickly bounced back and found creative alternative methods for serving those in need.

There is a move to conduct “open” United Way campaigns where donors may select charitable contributions that go outside our city/county area. That dilutes the help that we’re able to offer the residents in our community.

There may be elements of “donor fatigue” that challenge our community. Donors are responding generously to COVID-19, the Texas winter storm emergency, hurricanes and natural disasters, and even personal “GoFundMe” requests. Fatigue occurs when existing donors become slow to respond or fail to donate at all. Thankfully, we haven’t experienced this, but it's more important than ever that nonprofits work hard to keep their relationships with donors fresh and engaging.

Market saturation and brand relevancy is an obstacle. It’s harder and harder to stand out in the marketplace as there is growing competition for donor dollars.

DonateStock: How is United Way evolving to address these challenges?

Chris: At United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County, we are listening and communicating more, working one-on-one with our partners to understand their current situation(s). we are also enhancing our community and corporate relationship-building efforts; growing our Leadership, Legacy and Planned Giving programs; and reaching out to new small-midsize businesses. Reaching out to lapsed donors and non-workplace donors helps us stay connected and top-of-mind with potential donors.

We also have grown our marketing department and just completed a brand survey to better determined what we’re doing well and what we need to work on. This year, we introduced a mobile phone app and redesigned the website to make access to our information easy, fun and informative. Our visibility in the community helps reach those in need through robust volunteerism and community projects, including a Write Start school supply drive, a hygiene-item collection Shoebox Project, and literacy reading programs.

Because there is much work to be done in many different ways supported by many different methods, we continue to expand our grant-funding work, requests and outreach.

DonateStock: How has the Pandemic changed the way you operate? And is there a silver lining?

Chris: The pandemic moved United Way to become more nimble in how fundraising campaigns are conducted. Like many organizations and businesses, we’ve participated in meetings that are virtual, in-person, combination of both. We also had the opportunity to upgrade the technology in our building to better support partner meetings and the work-from-home environment. The emergence of stories of compassion and caring that unite people during a crisis are astounding. We introduced Get Shift Done to connect displaced food service workers to paid positions helping local agencies provide food to hungry families. Our Emergency Childcare Assistance Program provided three weeks of emergency assistance for parents who had to leave home for work and were struggling to find childcare. Launching the SAUnited4Good website helped gather volunteer opportunities, stories and data from nonprofits, while providing an online repository to help local charities connect to volunteers. In response to people’s requests to help, we created a community-wide Thank-A-Thon, collecting and distributing over 1,000 notes, photos and videos of gratitude and encouragement for essential workers.

DonateStock: How has your approach to fundraising changed?

Chris: I think the pandemic created the need, and opportunity, for us to really listen to our partners, clients, staff and donors to reimagine what it takes to serve others. we were able to strengthen and leverage our leadership team and governance structure, revisit our bylaws, revise our articles of incorporation and come together with synergy, tenacity and creativity to serve others.

DonateStock: Where do you see new possibilities for innovation?

Chris: I believe there are many opportunities for responding to discovering what is working now, examining the data and bringing programs and ideas to scale. We are well positioned to engage, lead and collaborate on ideas for new funding streams, service delivery, corporate engagement, or generating scale. We are also honored and humbled to be able to take advantage of additional investment opportunities from a $20 million unrestricted philanthropic gift.

DonateStock: What else would you like the audience to know?

Chris: We have a strong employee diversity, equity and inclusion agenda. Here is our diversity statement: DIFFERENT TOGETHER, STRONGER UNITED. United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County envisions a diverse and thriving community, free of racism and discrimination, where everyone has the opportunity to achieve their full potential. We succeed when all individuals and ideas are welcomed, valued, represented and respected. We promote an inclusive culture where all employees, volunteers, donors and partners are embraced because of our differences. We are unique in who we are and what we believe. We lead by example knowing diversity in our work and community is our greatest strength.

I want to thank the others who have responded to these questions for their service leadership in improving our communities, states, country and world. As we learn from one another, it takes the dedication of all of us, and I’m proud to be on the team.