The Sears store at the Northwest Arkansas Mall is closed.
Dickson Street is no longer home to Jose's.
What’s the point?
The United Way faces tough changes ahead to revive its important role in raising money for the benefit of neighbors in Northwest Arkansas.
Springdale doesn't have a Ryan's department store on Emma Avenue anymore.
Whitey Smith's famed chicken cooks raised money for generations of Rogers High students, but that ended in 2016.
But there's still plenty of retail activity these days, and there's little evidence the taste for margaritas and Americanized Mexican food has diminished. Philanthropy is still happening in Rogers and Springdale's downtown is seeing new life.
The point is, change is change, and it's not the end of the world.
The United Way of Northwest Arkansas faces a future of change (and who doesn't?), if it is going to continue its long history of community fundraising. The nonprofit organization, with its goal to provide every child in Northwest Arkansas a pathway out of poverty, announced last week its annual workplace campaign had come up $500,000 short of a goal far below what the organization was raising at its pinnacle just eight years ago.
In 2007, the United Way organizations in Benton and Washington counties merged. Its leaders then said the goal was to increase the joint organization's capacity for making an impact on the community. The merger, advocates said, was expected to lead to more fundraising. In that first year, the merged operation set a goal to raise $4.5 million and exceeded it by a small amount.
The goal was the same in 2009, but fell short. Subsequent years saw smaller goals, but still shortfalls. The organization shifted its funding strategy around 2016, diminishing or cutting funds for some agencies it had delivered money to for years. Instead, the organization's leaders focused the strategy on having a measurable impact on childhood poverty.
And now, leaders are faced with a year the goal was down to $2.35 million but giving was down even farther.
[DROPCAP] Last week, United Way leaders said some soul-searching will be in order as they figure out how the organization fits into a new age of fundraising. In its heyday, the United Way provided a convenient method -- workplace payroll deductions elected annually -- for people to give within their communities. But nowadays, people can send money where it's needed on a whim. All they have to do is text a donation. With technological advances, we're in a world in which people expect instant action and instant gratification. Through cell phones and computers, people can give as soon as the desire strikes, and to causes that have grabbed their attention in that moment.
Most organizations have ways to give directly, so what's the need for the United Way in this new world order?
That's a daunting question to answer, but it's not time for the United Way to fade into the past. There is value in an organization that's primary goal is fundraising for other organizations whose focus is delivering needed services. The United Way of Northwest Arkansas didn't necessarily do anything to create the identity crisis it faces, but it undoubtedly must deal with it head on.
This we know: The needs addressed through the fundraising the United Way has done do not go away just because the giving comes up short. We appreciate the community-focused efforts of so many in Benton and Washington counties who have been involved in the United Way and will work to ensure the future continues to involve strong giving.
Commentary on 02/21/2018