Frequently Asked Questions

We unite our entire community to work toward one goal: to make North Texas the best place to live, work and raise a family, for all.  

For 100 years, we have led, created and invested in programs that strengthen education, income and health—what we call the building blocks of opportunity—in Dallas, Collin, Rockwall and southern Denton counties. We bring together passionate change-makers alongside corporate, civic and nonprofit partners to drive meaningful progress toward our community-wide Aspire United 2030 goals.   

By uniting our entire community around our shared vision, together we are building a North Texas where all students graduate high school on a path to success, all families are financially stable and all our neighbors live longer, healthier lives.   

Our service area is Dallas, Collin, Rockwall and southern Denton counties. 

Imagine what education, income and health mean to you and your family. Could you do without any one of them? They’re the building blocks of opportunity—all three are necessary for individuals, families and communities to thrive. Local children need an education so one day they can find employment that provides economic stability and mobility. And at every stage of life, all North Texans need good health to perform well at school or work. 

We provide direct services to our neighbors and partner with local community impact organizations that work in the areas of education, income or health. This approach enables us to create an impact that is both broad and deep, changing more than 1.7 million lives each year.  

We envision a day when every high school graduate is fully prepared for success in college or career, every adult can achieve financial stability, and every individual has the resources to live a longer, healthier life. 

Last year, United Way supporters changed the lives of 1.7 million North Texans—over 20% of the region’s population. That includes: 

• 698,000 who laid the groundwork for their ongoing school success from pre-k through high school. 

• 571,000 North Texans who accessed programming to get and keep better jobs and build savings for the future. 

• 473,000 neighbors who received primary health and wellness resources to live longer, healthier lives. 

Because of our local network and position in the North Texas community, we have a high-level view of the resources and gaps in our community’s social services. We study and step into these gaps with programs and coalitions to create opportunity where it didn’t exist before. 

We are the only social impact organization focused on all three building blocks of opportunity—education, income and health—rather than on a single issue.  

We take a uniquely strategic, data-driven approach to community impact work, setting and tracking quantifiable 10-year goals and leveraging a third-party evaluator. And we use powerful data tools to pinpoint—down to the block level—where our investments will make the most impact. This systems-wide approach enables us to improve whole neighborhoods, communities and groups.  

Another key difference is right there in our name: united. We recognize that it’s going to take all of us, working together, to create lasting change. We lead a community-wide movement to drive progress toward our goals, partnering with local nonprofits, mobilizing volunteers, driving business participation, fostering social innovation, and spurring the public and lawmakers to act for the common good. 

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas has the highest possible rating (four stars) on Charity Navigator, signifying strong financial health, accountability and transparency. We have a Silver Seal of Transparency from Candid for publicly sharing our data.  

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas engages researchers from the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI), a not-for-profit healthcare innovation organization affiliated with Parkland Health, to analyze publicly available data and narrow it to the region served by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas: Dallas, Collin, Rockwall and southern Denton counties. This allows us to track progress toward our community-wide Aspire United 2030 goals, which are our metrics for assessing our success in driving transformational change in education, income and health throughout North Texas. 

Our operating budget is audited annually by an independent accounting firm and carefully reviewed by volunteers who serve on the United Way Finance Committee and United Way Board of Directors. View our Financial Statements. 

We offer both in-person volunteer programs and virtual volunteer opportunities in North Texas. Visit our volunteer page to view current opportunities and to sign up to receive updates. 

• Visit our Get Assistance page, which includes resources and contact information for free food, laptop distributions, homelessness and housing, healthcare enrollment navigation, financial coaching, college savings accounts, free tax prep services, loans and other banking resources, parenting resources, home visiting, pregnancy support and more. 

• Call 211 to get free expert help with local community resources, including housing, employment, food/nutrition, emergency assistance, income and expenses, legal aid, criminal justice, childcare and education, and healthcare. 

United Way donations are tax deductible. Your donation receipt will contain full details. Our tax ID number is 75-6005352. 

At United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, 85% of every dollar goes directly to programs and services in our community. The remaining 15% covers essential functions like vetting and monitoring partner agencies, assessing community needs, coordinating volunteers and supporting donors. These investments help ensure funds are used effectively and produce real, measurable results. Independent evaluators like Charity Navigator recognize this balance and have rated United Way Dallas as a 4-star organization. You can review our full financials at unitedwaydallas.org/financials.   

Here’s how our overhead ratio is calculated: Our program expense ratio is determined by our program expenses divided by our total expense (the average of our most recent three IRS Forms 990). This measure reflects the percent of our total expenses that we spend on the programs and services that we exist to deliver.  

For any donation made through the United Way website, the site will generate a receipt at the time of the transaction. This receipt should be used for tax purposes. If you do not have a record of a donation receipt, please contact us to request one. 

For donations made through a workplace giving campaign, please keep a copy of your pledge form, along with your year-end pay stub, for payroll deduction gifts under $250. This will serve as a record of your donation to meet IRS regulations. 

For both website donations and workplace giving campaign donations of $250 and greater, United Way will mail out tax receipts by Jan. 31 of the next year. Donors requiring a United Way tax receipt for donations made in prior calendar years or for donations under $250 should make the request by contacting us.  

Donations to United Way of Metropolitan Dallas made through the North Texas Giving Day platform are receipted by the Communities Foundation of Texas. To request a receipt for your North Texas Giving Day donation, visit the North Texas Giving Day website.  

If you are passionate about a specific cause, we encourage you to support any organization making a meaningful impact in that space. However, if you want to make the broadest, most significant impact possible in North Texas, United Way of Metropolitan Dallas is the best investment.  

Funds given directly to United Way of Metropolitan Dallas do more to create opportunity for all North Texans to thrive. That’s because we are the only organization focused on all three building blocks of opportunity—education, income and health. We unite partners that are singularly focused on these areas and, together, we make the greatest impact possible on individuals, families and our community as a whole. 

There are a variety of ways for both corporations and community organizations to partner with United Way.  

• Corporations can sponsor key initiatives, hold workplace giving campaigns, engage employees through volunteer opportunities and more. Visit our corporate partnership page to get started. 

• Community organizations can apply to become a United Way Community Impact Partner, join one of our Social Innovation Lab programs, join the Data Capacity Building Initiative (DCBI) and more. Visit our nonprofit partnership page to learn more. 

Each year, companies across North Texas hold workplace campaigns to support the mission of United Way of Metropolitan Dallas. Through fundraising campaigns and volunteer events, these campaigns enable organizations of all sizes to directly contribute to our goal of improving access to education, income and health—the building blocks of opportunity. 

Workplace campaigns serve an important purpose for both United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and our corporate partners: 

• Employee giving campaigns are an important source of funding,volunteerand advocacy support, each of which drives measurable impact in the areas of education, income and health. 
• Annual giving campaigns also enable our dedicated partners to engage employees and give back to the community while promoting a culture of social responsibility, team building and fun!

For more information about workplace giving campaigns, please reach out to Helen Jury, vice president, Leadership Societies & Workplace Operations at United Way of Metropolitan Dallas, at hjury@unitedwaydallas.org. 

Financial stewardship is one of our core values. For 100 years, we have made the best use of every dollar, whether it’s supporting direct services for the community or partnering with other nonprofits that are doing exceptional work in the community. We undergo external audits every year to make sure our work is the best in class. 

Your donation to United Way of Metropolitan Dallas stays right here in our community, directly impacting residents in Dallas, Collin, Rockwall and southern Denton Counties. 

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas sends less than 1% of the money raised to United Way Worldwide for annual dues. 

Both. We create, lead and invest in a variety of programs that improve access to education, income and health. These initiatives positively impact more than 1.7 million North Texans every year. 

We partner with hundreds of local organizations, businesses, entrepreneurs and grassroots groups that are best positioned to help us meet our community goals. We use our expertise and resources to identify the greatest needs in the areas of education, income and health, and we vet potential partners to ensure our investments are driving us toward our Aspire United 2030 goals. 

We provide funding to agency partners in several ways, including through our Southern Dallas Thrives initiative; as part of our Social Innovation Incubator and Social Innovation Accelerator programs; and through our annual social innovation competition, The Pitch. Our Community Impact Partner program involves a competitive application process. In all cases, highly skilled and experienced United Way team members and/or community volunteers select agency partners that address important issues in our community. 

We make investment decisions based on an organization’s fiscal responsibility, sound management and measurable results. Oversight of continued adherence to sound fiscal policies and of program outcomes is part of the Community Impact Partner process.  

Absolutely. Our strategy panels and staff provide feedback to all agencies based on the evaluation of their program(s), enabling them to be more competitive going forward. We encourage agencies to apply for United Way funding in subsequent years. 

Although we focus primarily on creating long-term, systemic change, we are also prepared to assist in emergencies. When appropriate, we connect and communicate with North Texas nonprofits, corporations and government organizations to coordinate disaster response and to meet real-time needs.  

United Way of Metropolitan Dallas values the trust its supporters place in the organization and adheres to the highest standards in gathering, using and safeguarding customer information. United Way of Metropolitan Dallas does not sell or exchange personally identifiable information about its supporters. If you provide an email address or other personal information (excluding financial information) when you visit our website, we may enter such information into our databases so we can contact you to ask your input, provide information about our programs and events, and request contributions. If you would like us to withhold your information from such an exchange, please contact us. If you wish to unsubscribe from our emails, instructions for how to unsubscribe will be provided at the bottom of each email. 

Third parties that need access to your information in order to provide operational or other support services to us must agree to safeguard your information in strict compliance with our privacy policy. 

Our hotline is a reporting mechanism that facilitates reporting of possible illegal, unethical or improper conduct when the normal channels of communication have proven ineffective or are impractical under the circumstances. The hotline is available to employees, volunteers, donors, agency partners, vendors and community partners who are unsure about where to go with their concerns or feel uncomfortable reporting through normal channels of communication. The hotline is designed to protect your confidentiality and your anonymity, if requested. United Way of Metropolitan Dallas and the United Way Foundation of Metropolitan Dallas prohibit retaliation against anyone who, in good faith, reports a possible violation or participates in an investigation, even if sufficient evidence is not found to substantiate the concern. To report an ethics or compliance concern, you may leave an anonymous report at www.verifihelpline.com. Alternatively, if you would like to speak with a representative, you may call 855-583-7434. However you choose to leave your report, make sure that you provide either our organization code of 40129 or our name (make sure to specify United Way – Dallas). For more information, visit our ethics and compliance page. 

You agree that your use of the website is subject to the following Terms and Conditions. These terms and conditions may be modified at any time. Your continued access to the website will constitute your acceptance of any changes or revisions to the agreement. If you do not agree with the terms and conditions, please do not use this website. The materials contained on the website are provided by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas as a service to you for your use on an “as is, as available” basis. You acknowledge that you are using the website at your own risk. United Way of Metropolitan Dallas assumes no responsibility for error or omissions in these materials. United Way of Metropolitan Dallas makes no commitment to update the information contained herein. United Way of Metropolitan Dallas makes no, and expressly disclaims any and all, representations or warranties, express or implied, regarding the website, including without limitation the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of text, graphics, links, products and services, and other items accessed from or via the website, or that the website will be uninterrupted, error-free, or free of viruses or other harmful components. No advice or information given by United Way of Metropolitan Dallas or any other party on the website shall create any warranty or liability. 

Refund requests are reviewed on an individual basis. Please contact us to request a refund.