How United Way is transferring power to a local level

United Way is one of the largest and oldest nonprofits in the United States — and in the world. But its focus right now is on shifting power to small, local organizations, its CEO told an audience of development professionals recently. Speaking at the Devex Impact House on the sidelines of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings in Washington, Angela Williams said her organization was focused on what was happening at the kitchen table. It is easy, she said, to focus on policy and politics, but for most people, the really important decisions are those which are taken locally, and which center the individual people who want to see change in their lives. She said that the core of this approach was what she called “place-based programming.” “You bring in the people that you are working with that are most affected, that need the change or need the assistance — bringing them into the room to ask them, what are the problems that you're experiencing, whether it's a lack of affordable housing, whether it's lack of connectivity, whatever the issue is,” she said. “But then secondly, bringing in cross-sectoral representatives to sit and listen and to approach it from a position of partnership, as opposed to saviorship.” She gave an example of how her organization was able to bring people together while working in Mumbai, India. “Right in the middle of a busy intersection is this plot of land, and there was a little building — a very tiny building. So my United Way colleagues asked the government, ‘Can we turn that building into a gathering place for the seniors?’” she said. “They can navigate in between the cars and the mopeds to get across the street, and there they can do exercises. They sit around in this small building, on chairs, and just talk to each other. That human connectivity, it just revives them.”