United Way Myth # 1: My Investment does not stay locally.
Fact: 99% of your investment stays in Harrisonburg & Rockingham County.  The other 1% is a fee paid to United Way of America for the use of the “United Way” name, United Way of America research, and tools such as the United Way of America Intranet, list serve idea sharing with other United Ways across the country and national campaign support such as the NFL commercials and born learning initiative.

United Way Myth # 2: United Way has high overhead.Fact: The United Way of Harrisonburg & Rockingham County’s overhead is 15.  Based on a comparison of other local non-profit Health and Human Service organizations our overhead is less than 74% of the 26 organizations sampled and higher than 22% of the sample.  Of those 5 who have lower overhead United Way does fundraising and provides other forms of support to all of those.

United Way Myth # 3: My investment does not go where you say it does.
Fact: Community Volunteers decide where your investment is most needed.  These teams of trained volunteers review and evaluate each program annually and decide upon the level of grant funding to award each program.  Another group of community volunteers certifies all community partners bi-annually and conducts budget reviews annually.  The certification process is outlined in our community impact guidelines.  These guidelines are under the Community Impact drop down list in the Application Materials section.  In addition, United Way of Harrisonburg & Rockingham County is audited annually by an outside accounting firm.

United Way Myth # 4: My investment does not matter.
Fact: Your investment in your community is what matters.  Without your support United Way of Harrisonburg & Rockingham County, and our 33 Community Partner programs would not be able to provide the level of support currently delivered.  Nor would United Way of Harrisonburg & Rockingham County be able to be involved in the numerous collaborative partnerships we currently supporting.  One person does make a difference.  Together,  we can accomplish results that no one can alone.