It was a beautiful early summer day a few weeks ago. We were on the campaign trail – the United Way campaign.

We had just finished presenting to 70 or 80 employees of a great local company that has supported our United Way and the community for more than 100 years. A few people approached; they had a few questions. Really good questions. The kind of questions we relish receiving, because it gives us the opportunity to deepen our story and connect on a more personal way with possible contributors.

One person asked a leading question: “Who is your most important donor?”

They may have been looking for me to answer, “MacKenzie Scott.” Certainly Ms. Scott was and is important. Her financial support and the awareness and credibility that came with it is a beautiful testament to the value of our work in Central Massachusetts.

But my answer was simpler: “Every donor is our ‘most important’ donor.”

Every donor makes a choice and says yes.

Yes to our United Way and yes to our community. Seven thousand donors. The $5 donor, the $52 donor, the $500 donor, the $10,000 donor – especially when they give every year, they drive our campaign, they enable us to invest in the community.

The second question was equally wonderful: “If I give to the United Way, where does the money go? What good does it do?”

I smiled. I asked if they had an hour. I was excited to share highlights of community investments and community accomplishments of the past year.

• Mass 2-1-1: The United Way and state-funded health and human services hotline. In 2023, more than 500,000 people across Massachusetts in need of information or support or help called 2-1-1 and had their questions answered.

• Massachusetts Farm Resiliency Fund: The Healey-Driscoll created, United Way-led effort to support and assist our local Central and Western Massachusetts farmers after devastating flooding last summer. We distributed more than $3 million to more than 225 farms and farmers, helping them recover from the flooding.

• After School and Out of School Time: Funding and support for children and families thanks to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. After receiving this grant award, our United Way distributed more than $1.5 million this past summer and school year to more than 150 youth-focused partner agencies. More than 15,000 children and their families benefitted from these programs.

• The Women’s Initiative Dollar $cholars financial literacy program for adolescent girls: Twenty sessions at youth development agencies and local middle schools hosted this program, serving and teaching more than 700 girls.

• WooServes: The summer tween and teen volunteer service program. Fifteen local nonprofit partner agencies welcomed WooServes, taught the 35 students about their work, and engaged the students in volunteer service this past summer.

• Days of Caring: Our United Way’s signature volunteer effort in September that kicks off the annual fundraising campaign. This past September we held a week of “Days of Caring,” engaged with more than 70 local businesses and companies, deployed over 1,000 volunteers into the community, and worked toward creating a civil society.

• RAMP Builds: The AFL-CIO Labor Community Services program that engages with our local firefighters and retired firefighters. Each summer the RAMP program builds between 10 and 13 ramps for children and adults who are mobility-impaired and house bound. This program truly changes lives and gives the joy of outside to each recipient.

• Stamp Out Hunger: The country’s largest one-day food drive, organized by U.S. Postal Service letter carriers. Our United Way supports this effort by providing “reminder bags” that residents of Central Mass. may fill with nonperishable food. On May 11, more than 285,000 pounds of food was collected and distributed to local food pantries and food banks – all to assist with creating food security this summer.

• YouthConnect: A seven-youth-agency collaborative funded by our United Way that works to create Worcester as a citywide campus of youth opportunity. During the summer YouthConnect runs the 40 nights of summer, providing 400 teens with safe places to go, quality role models, great food, skills development and fun.

• Community Impact Funding: Our United Way’s open and competitive process to select partner agencies offering high-impact programs in youth opportunities, community resiliency, financial security and healthy community. Two great examples from the more than 50 amazing programs include: the summer literacy initiative, creating language-rich environments and reading as fun at summer camps; and Meals on Wheels, providing food security and visual check-ins for our local seniors.

• Worcester Community Challenge: We invested more than $2 million into innovative programs to improve our community; including: Crocodile River Music, Project Flourish (Family Services), Regional Environmental Council, and Technocopia partnership with Hector Reyes House.

As the staff lead of and for the United Way of Central Massachusetts, I take great pride in the programs and the partners that our United Way supports – and the life-giving differences that these make in our community. These extraordinary programs and efforts can only happen – CAN ONLY HAPPEN – due to our “most important donor,” all 7,000 of them.

Tonight – Monday, June 17 – we excitedly invite Central Massachusetts to our 104^th annual community celebration at South High beginning at 4:30 p.m., with the program of celebration beginning at 5:10. Join us!

Tim Garvin is president and CEO of the United Way of Central Massachusetts.

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: United Way’s Tim Garvin: This is our most important donor