Julianne Sloane

Agency Overview: United Way of King County Tax Campaign

United Way of King County was first the first federated campaign organization
in 1921 originally known as the Seattle Community Fund. It started out as a way to
combine 43 separate fund-raising efforts among Seattles charitable and health
welfare agencies. From there in 1952 it expanded to become the United Good
Neighbors a group that benefited over 55 agencies. In 1972 it joined with United
Way of Americas national identification to become United Way King County. United
Way of King County is an organization that has grown and adapted over the year
building partnerships with other non-profits and working with city, county and state
governments in order to meet community needs. 2005 marks the most recent major
shift for United Way of King County as it began focusing on community impact. This
shift makes sure that its business capitalizes on its ability to identify issues, invest in
solutions and improve lives. In 2014 the program United Way Tax Campaign filed
over 17,500 returns bringing 9.1 million dollars back into the community and
utilized over 900 volunteers.
The organizations mission is To bring caring people together to give,
volunteer, and take action to help people in need and solve our communities
toughest challenges. The organizations focus areas for taking access include
meeting peoples basic needs, ending homelessness in King County and giving kids
an equal chance while also acting as an advocate for public policy solutions. We
specifically volunteer for the United Way Tax Campaign which is meant to serve
people living in King County who have an annual income of less than $60,000
correctly file their taxes. These tax filing services are provided for free at any of the
25 King County locations. However it should be noted that the tax campaign is just
one branch of the over 100 services provided to the community through United Way.

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United Way as a larger organization has multiple goals which revolve around
monitoring the changing conditions in King County in order to bring measurable
improvements in the lives of the areas most vulnerable citizens. Focusing on the
ability to measure and quantify their outcomes they have very specific goals they
wish to achieve during this years tax season. Through the Tax Campaign they hope
to file over 20,000 tax returns and make 2,000 connections to benefits and
organizations. Individual site goals are to provide 200 hard referrals and 100+ soft
referrals per organization. It is extremely important to the organization to not
discriminate on who they help making the only requirement is that the client is
below the specified income bracket for the service and that their tax needs fit within
the scope of volunteer knowledge.
The organization sets specific values throughout their programs and works to
ensure that all of these are being set. Such values include an aim for poverty
reduction, to serve as many people as possible, to maintain high volunteer
standards of conduct with ethical behavior, to ensure security, and finally to have
privacy and confidentiality in all stages and processes.
United Way in 2010 created a five year strategic plan as a method to
effectively focus their resources to achieve the biggest impact. The plan is
considered like a blue print for continuing to engage and serve the community while
keeping up with the increase in cultural and generational diversity. The five major
points listed in this plan are:
1. Solve community problems and provide resources to respond to emerging
needs in the community.
2. Work in a collaborative and powerfully aligned way with partners.

Julianne Sloane
3. Expend time and energy required to better understand needs, values, and
interests of the increasingly racially, ethnically, generationally and
culturally diverse community.
4. Deepen and broaden fundraising presence.
5. Continue commitment to high performance, innovation and continuous
improvement.
Furthermore the organization also has specific strategies in place in order to achieve
their specific goals with the Tax Campaign to file over 20,000 tax returns and refer
2,000 to benefits. Such strategies include:

All tax preparers are higher-level certified. Goal is to successfully file at least
90% of all processed returns. Having higher-level certified tax preparers
ensures that the volunteers have enough knowledge to help clients across a
wide variety of needs.

Intake Benefit Specialists to connect clients to appropriate services. Through

an easy to use framework volunteer can quickly determine how to connect
people to the necessary programs to help them with all of their basic needs.
Such programs include:
o

Basic Food (Food Stamps etc.)

Utility Assistance (LIHEAP, Call 211)

Housing

Health Care (Within Reach)

Financial Empowerment

Julianne Sloane
United Way makes sure to run an extremely efficient organization through
running a lean operation and is able to have 98 cents of every donated dollar goes
back to the community thanks to the high number of volunteers which assist on
running their programs. Another major funding came from donations made through
the Bill and Melinda Gates Endowment and from community members. The Tax
Campaign specifically receives smaller grants from local businesses (Bank of
America, Starbucks, etc.) but is a program primarily funded through a federal IRS
grant. Though the program does not generate any revenue and has an annual
budget is just over half a million dollars- $529,000. The Director of Basic Needs,
Lauren McGowan approves the budget and any changes are first approved by
Program Manager Yuri Kim and then ultimately need to get Laurens final approval.
United Way has an operating board of directors with six members who all are
leaders in the Seattle community. Furthermore it had a campaign leadership team
with five members and over twenty directors who are all essential to the running
the organization. The staff management team has five members and has teams for
over 14 departments that branch off to over 100 sub-organizations.
The structure of the Tax Campaign is 25 tax sites in King Country with over 900
volunteers. Each site has at least one full time United Way staff present but busier
sites often have multiple managers. The clients who visit tax sites must fit within
certain criteria to be served. After determining that they fit within the criteria for
clients who can utilize the service they must present their ID and Social Security
Card (Or copy of last years W2. Then they must sign up and fill out intake form and
have the option of reviewing their intake and benefits options. Finally they work with
a tax filing specialist to submit their return.

Julianne Sloane
My role at the site is to get clients registered and then connect them to the
appropriate intake and benefits options. When clients arrive we welcome them and
check to make sure they have the documentation. We then provide the necessary
paperwork, provide screening of benefit options then connect them with tax
preparers when the preparer is ready to see them. We are the first people they see
and often have to answer questions about the credibility of the organization to help
people who are new to the organization understand who we are and why we are
helping. This is very important for this tax because we will be looking at peoples
personal documents and they need to be confident that they can trust us.