Valley United Way and Social Media

Anyone who follows Valley United Way knows that we have been leaders in the use of electronic media to spread the word about everything that we do. In the "pre-Internet age", we were one of the United Ways experimenting with what passed for electronic media at the time - Compuserve. We then became the first United Way in Connecticut and one of the first in the country to actually have a website, and when United Way of America gave awards for such things, our web site was named best in the country for United Ways our size or smaller. Our original website with its 25 word descriptions of the agencies we funded became the forerunner of the Valley's community website - The Electronic Valley.

Long before the term social media became the rage, we were working with the Valley Council for Health & Human Services to foster better communications through electronic media by promoting the use of e-mail, mailing lists and electronic groups. There was no Facebook, MySpace or Twitter back then. In fact there was no Google or Yahoo, but we did have e-Groups, and the Valley Council was one of the first to use such a tool. All of those tools helped to create a very tightly integrated social service network here in the Valley that is remarkable in its ability to cooperate, share information and ideas and collaborate where appropriate. It has been especially helpful in being able to swiftly respond to community needs when called upon such as the tragic Latex Foam fire.

Keeping up with the rapid advances in technology is always a challenge, but for a small United Way, we continue to respond to that challenge - and opportunity to better serve our supporters and the general community. Along with the United Way in Hartford, we helped pioneer the concept of an on-line volunteer matching system (Volunteer Solutions) whereby our Volunteer Center is always open. We now do all of our allocations and special needs grants through an on-line process called e-Cimpact making our process virtually paperless for agencies and volunteers. Some of our campaigns are also paperless where companies choose to use our electronic campaign software instead of the traditional paper pledge card.

In addition to following all the latest information on our website which has now grown to over 35,000 files, you can also subscribe to one of our electronic newsletters, follow us on Twitter, watch us on YouTube, become a fan or friend on Facebook, or even subscribe to have this blog sent to you immediately.

Our goal is to build a strong relationship with our supporters by providing information and service whenever, wherever, and  however it is wanted. We hope that you find it helpful.





For more information about Valley United Way, visit our website at www.valleyunitedway.org.