United Way of King County
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United Way Puget Sound
Published
Nov 4, 2024
Innovating for a better future for all
When he was a child, Bill Gates would wait in the United Way of King County (UWKC) offices and read while his parents attended board meetings. Those days, along with his parents’ dedication to community service, made an impression. When Gates went on to co-found Microsoft, the company chose UWKC as its first beneficiary of the inaugural employee Giving Campaign—the month-long, global event that has funneled more than $3B into the causes employees care about over the last four decades. Since then, Microsoft has continued to support UWKC through grants, technology, expertise, and employee volunteering.
The company has continued to invest significant resources into making the Puget Sound a better place through UWKC. Over the last 50 years, Microsoft and its employees have donated more than $1.3 million in Washington state alone, the nonprofit was one of the top recipients of employee giving and company-matched donations in 2023. Microsoft’s Tech for Social Impact provides donated and discounted technology access that forms the backbone of the nonprofit’s operations. Volunteers also dedicate thousands of hours to vital community projects through UWKC projects every year.
UWKC works with and invests in the groups that best know their communities’ needs and strengths. The organization meets immediate needs and advocates to reform systemic inequalities. Erlandson adds, "The contributions of not only Microsoft but employees as well play a big part in making sure people in King County have a safe place to call home, have enough to eat, and work toward racial justice.”
“At United Way we’re meeting people’s immediate needs, while advocating to change the systems that cause those needs. We’re so grateful to Microsoft and its employees for their support in making this a reality and building an equitable future for everyone.”
– Jared Erlandson, Senior Director of Communications for United Way of King County.
Innovating together
“Microsoft and United Way share a dedication to finding innovative solutions to big challenges, then scaling them to the scope of the need,” Erlandson says. Ongoing philanthropic support, such as the Gates Endowment that offsets a large proportion of the nonprofit’s operating costs, gives UWKC the flexibility to tackle entrenched problems in creative ways.
For example, UWKC saw a gap in homelessness prevention where it could rally partners and contribute solutions. In 2019, the nonprofit spearheaded the Home Base project with Microsoft, the Mariners, and others to enable people at the brink of eviction—especially Black renters, who are 4.5 times more likely to be evicted in King County than white people—to stay in their homes. When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and evictions skyrocketed, Home Base connected communities to federal housing support that they did not have the resources to allocate on their own. “The infrastructure put up in part thanks to Microsoft enabled us to quickly pivot, distributing more than $215 million in rental assistance,” Erlandson says. “A $5 million gift from Microsoft helped yield more than $200 million in support for struggling renters, and more than 30,000 households avoided homelessness as a result. That would never have happened without this relationship with Microsoft.”
Thought partnership helps UWKC find the most impactful solutions possible, Erlandson adds. “The smart, innovative individuals and teams of Microsoft advise us and contribute to the very fabric of the United Way of King County.” Members of executive leadership serve on boards and annual community campaigns, thousands of Microsoft employees turn out for volunteering events, and fresh ideas born of this longstanding collaboration enable the nonprofit do even more good.
Erlandson points to the UWKC annual tax preparation initiative that helps people needing support in filing their returns, which Microsoft volunteers helped spearhead about 20 years ago. Every year, as many as 25,000 households turn to the program, get peace of mind, and sometimes learn they are due life-changing tax refunds. “This project can be transformational for a family, and these volunteers make that happen,” Erlandson says.
Scaling impact
“We’re seen as a leader as well as an incubator for innovation,” Erlandson says of UWKC, one of roughly 1,100 local United Way organizations worldwide. “That’s baked into our partnership with Microsoft, too.” For instance, UWKC piloted a Microsoft-supported program to connect community college students to resources such as food and housing assistance, so they could afford to stay enrolled. Students who got help from these benefits navigators were 25 percent more likely to graduate. Since then, UWKC has expanded the program, now called Bridge to Finish Benefits Hub, to ten community colleges around the region. In part because of UWKC’s advocacy, all public Washington colleges and universities will employ a benefits navigator. UWKC is working on systematizing Bridge to Finish so higher education institutions can easily adopt it.
The program is one more example of UWKC’s commitment to individual impact as well as systemic change. "We’ve seen that this program stabilizes students so they can graduate. Then they have careers and the earning potential that can change the course of their lives,” Erlandson says.
Long-term partnerships like the one with Microsoft make this kind of progress possible, he adds. “We all want a wonderful place to live, work, and play, and that requires all of us to have a personal stake in making that happen. There is a culture of generosity instilled in Microsoft, and that has changed the very fabric of this region.”
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