GUIDE TO CHARITABLE GIVING
Lending a Helping Hand
Local service organizations depend on the public’s continued support BY TIM WALKER
“C
harity begins at home” the old adage states and when your home is in Dayton that statement certainly still holds true. The Miami Valley has a wide variety of local charities and service organizations that all rely on the monetary donations, volunteer work and other means of support generously provided by local residents in order to to fulfill their mission of helping others. Homeless shelters, charities that provide aid to the needy and cultural organizations are only a few of the groups that can always use your help. If you are a kind-hearted, caring individual and you are interested in giving of yourself to benefit others there are many fine local service organizations that would be only too happy to receive your time, your help or donation. The local United Way is a charitable organization that helps thousands of people annually in Greene, Montgomery and Preble counties. They partner with over 100 local social service agencies, offering people in need both immediate help and working toward long-term solutions for a variety of social problems. “United Way of the Greater Dayton Area is really about helping people and solving human services problems,” says Tom
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Tom Maultsby is president and CEO of United Way of Greater Dayton. Maultsby, president and CEO of United Way of Greater Dayton. “Philanthropy has changed over the years and we took a look out in the community and saw that we could not just continue to treat the symptoms—we had to work together to solve the problems. For 100 years United Way had been treating the symptoms and yet we still had the same problems and the same issues. So we had to take a different tack.” The United Way of Greater Dayton now offers a variety of resources to connect people with assistance, many of which can be accessed through its website at daytonunitedway.org. There are also links there for individuals who would like to make donations to United Way’s various programs. Aid for those in need can also be accessed through dialing the United Way Helplink at 211 which will connect callers with a live person 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. The Helplink offers assistance with everything from finding quality child care to help with utility bills to finding care for an aging parent. “One thing we’ve learned,” says Maultsby, “is that taking that tack requires a very broad community, so United Way could not do this in a vacuum. We partner with Montgomery County and do research to discover where the most critical needs are and then we have tried to respond to those needs.” Like the United Way the Society of St.
Vincent de Paul has been helping poor and indigent individuals and families for well over 100 years. The society operates two homeless shelters in Dayton and is always in need of volunteers and donations of goods and funds. “We are more than just a shelter,” says Adam Wik, local marketing communications manager for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. The society offers comprehensive support, serving the community personally in face-to-face relationships, with an aim toward systematically reducing the poverty and homelessness risk factors in the Dayton community. “We want those who need help to know that we will meet them where they are,” says Wik. “And for our community supporters to realize that their support is more than putting a Band-Aid on the problem. By joining our mission the community helps us to provide life-changing hope to more than 100,000 lives every year.” The local St. Vincent shelters average about 400 people each night between the two shelters and about 40 of those residents are children. The biggest surge is in the fall—in November and the first part of December 2017 the shelter was housing over 120 children each night, and that increased need lasted for weeks. Like many service organizations the St. Vincent de Paul shelters are also always in need of donations and a large staff of volunteers helps to maintain