Credit union VP takes new United Way job

Amy Orr gives a lot of credit to United Way Quad Cities for helping lift the fortunes of so many people in the area.

A 15-year veteran of IH Mississippi Valley Credit Union (recently vice president of marketing) Orr is just in her second week in the new United Way position of vice president of corporate relations.

“She’s a huge get, honestly,” United Way chief strategy officer Angela Snyder said Tuesday from the nonprofit’s Bettendorf offices. “It’s very valuable having someone on the team come from the for-profit sector, who understands business needs as much as it feels good to do good.”

“Amy also has a marketing mind, who does know how to listen and come up with strategies and products that address the community. That’s why we’re here, but also address the business need.”

“She cares about the Quad Cities; it was just the perfect fit,” Snyder added. Orr also has served on the board of the former MidCoast Fine Arts, and has helped organize the annual Riverssance Festival of Fine Art for over 10 years.

United Way of the Quad Cities Area — serving Rock Island and Scott counties – has 8,000 donors, 3,500 volunteers, and distributes grants every two years. The last time was in summer 2023, for 51 partner agencies.

“We are not a direct service provider; we are a mobilizer of people,” Snyder said. “That’s what Amy is going to help us do more – magnify and mobilize more people.”

Last July, United Way awarded $2.8 million in Community Impact Grants to 51 organizations that are working to resolve the community’s most pressing issues in education, income and health.

IH has been a huge community supporter, echoing the credit union philosophy – “people helping people,” Orr said Tuesday. “IH definitely walked the walk and talked the talk, right? It wasn’t just United Way. We supported United Way in all the communities we serve, in addition to everything else.”

“The beauty is, it expands beyond United Way,” she said. “As a credit union, providing those opportunities, and as a company, there was a committee that looked at funding requests as they came in. It was part of who we were, just giving back.”

That’s what very much attracted Orr to work for United Way, to help companies figure out how they can help and give back.

For nine years before IH Mississippi Valley, she was Genesis Health System community relations coordinator.

Orr has known Snyder, United Way CEO Rene Gellerman and Michele Darland (senior director of relationship advancement) for many years.

“They’ve been speaking up and speaking out and being a voice for those that don’t have one, and that started to resonate with me a lot,” Orr said. Last year, she was part of her first United Way investment panel for income (the two other main pillars for the nonprofit are education and health).

“That was great,” she said. “Just kind of see the need. One thing Quad Citians don’t realize is just how much of a need there is. All of these grant requests – we can’t give to everybody; how do you really pick and choose?”

About 100 people serve on investment panels for grant applicants in income, education and health, making recommendations to the United Way board. In each pillar, there are about three different strategies.

Orr called the current United Way staff “a dream team.”

“I am super excited; I am thrilled to be part of this,” she said. “Not being a native Quad Citian, I have been here longer than I’ve been anywhere else. Ryan (her husband) and I love the community. Our family is here. It’s a fantastic community; there are so many people doing good, I’m excited to be part of it and help advance it.”

From Russell to United Way

Snyder became United Way’s first chief strategy officer two and a half years ago, after 16 years at Russell Construction, overseeing business development, marketing, and employee development.

“I was always part of helping people do good things in the community, including United Way,” she said of Russell, noting they strongly support United Way. Current Russell president Caitlin Russell is United Way board chair.

Snyder was an investment panel volunteer (helping making grant recommendations) and did Day of Caring work. The United Way job is very purpose-driven and fulfilling, she said.

“You’re also helping people connect with their purpose,” Snyder said. Her role is to guide, develop and lead the people who develop United Way resources – including the marketing and communications team, and fundraising team.

United Way for a long time has been known as a transactional organization, organizing an annual workplace giving campaign and two Days of Caring (pre-COVID) per year, in the spring and fall. It now does an April Day of Caring, attracting over 1,200 people to tackle volunteer projects throughout the region.

This year’s Day of Caring will be April 25. Whether it’s painting schools, cleaning up parks, or assisting local nonprofits, the Day of Caring embodies the spirit of unity and service.

“We’d go into a business over two weeks – they raise money, inspire their employees, we work with it, and tell them how it went, and we talk to them again in a year,” Snyder said of workplace campaigns. “That is not what true social impact is about and having Amy here is going to be huge, in transitioning to a relationship-based, donor-centric, connected organization, that helps businesses achieve their business goals and helps them with employee engagement goals.”

United Way wants to survey companies to find out what they and their employees care about.

“We’re able to craft unique volunteer opportunities we can bring into the workplace,” Snyder said. “We want more Quad-City businesses involved in the community.”

They work with about 250 employers that participate in different ways – from John Deere down to a 10-person business.

Small businesses are the biggest challenge, since they don’t have the staff capacity or flexibility to volunteer much, Snyder said. “Our goal is to deepen the relationships we have and to respond, partner in different ways, year-round.”

Connecting with new partners

Orr wants to reach out to new businesses they haven’t connected with.

United Way often finds companies create their own volunteer programs, like Quad City Bank & Trust, whose tellers can’t leave to volunteer.

“More companies are understanding the value and expectation of workforce, especially the employees,” Snyder said. “They want to belong and believe in something the company belongs and believes in.”

“Amy is gonna be huge, not just in growing the number of companies, but growing the amount of time and resources that companies can invest back into the Quad Cities,” she said. “She’s going to be instrumental in helping more companies become able to execute on their own corporate purposes. That means more people are engaged in the Quad Cities and the Quad Cities becomes a better place, if more people are involved.”

Often times, it takes employees volunteering before they donate money, Snyder said. Some employers match employee giving, typically based on the company size.

One thing Gellerman and Snyder impressed upon Orr is how to impact outcomes, like 3^rd-grade reading proficiency, early childhood education, earning a living wage as an adult, and access to health care.

In 2023, United Way QC made the following impact in these areas:

• Education: 19,037 students had the groundwork laid for continued educational success.

• Income: 53,253 QC residents received assistance to secure and retain better jobs and build savings for the future.

• Health: 19,014 residents got access to the health and wellness resources they need to live healthy lives.

United Way works with businesses and employees to get them engaged, pooling those resources, to make an impact, Snyder said.

“Without the corporate donations, our corporate businesses and even our volunteers, none of those outcomes are possible,” Orr said.

“Some of them don’t know how to start,” she said. “That’s what I get to do – help them start and find out what’s important to them, what’s important to their employees and figure out how those fit into our income, education, and health and provide those opportunities.”

United Way’s goal is to help create opportunities for every single person in the QC, regardless of who they are.

The workplace campaign traditionally focused in the fall, but Orr wants to see what works best for everyone’s schedule.

“Part of that is year-round,” she said, noting some employers may want to focus on the spring. She will try to meet with all United Way employer partners and schedule time to encourage businesses that haven’t been a partner.

“We’re going to be more responsive to designing experiences for our workplace partners when it is good for them and their teams,” Snyder said.

United Way averages raising about $6.5 million through its workplace campaign each year, she said.

“We also know there are individuals out there that want to have a more direct hand. We appreciate the payroll deductions and donations, but there are some people who want to do something different and have a tighter connection to individuals they’re helping,” Snyder said.

Orr wants to both grow the number of businesses involved and the number of employees participating within them.

“For those we’ve never had a relationship with, I’d like to have a relationship as well and see what’s important to them and see how that ties in with what we’re doing,” she said.

Snyder said they would target companies that have at least 20 employees, across a variety of industries.

“We can serve as their one-stop shop to identify, to hone, create and to measure,” she said. “We’re a very data-driven organization. We can say after a year’s time, ‘Hey company XYZ, you had 27 employees that gave 67 hours, and that’s valued at this, and that impacted 24 lives because of this.

“All employers want to know return on investment and we’re very well-positioned to do that,” Snyder said.

First on to-do list

Orr’s first priority is understanding who United Way’s supporters are and listening to them.

“What’s been working for them, what hasn’t? How do they want to grow or expand?” she asked. “From that, we have 250 businesses, just meeting with them, understanding and finding out what they want. From there, it’s to develop a plan and formalize that. Make sure that we are providing things that are relevant.”

Orr will work with Nate Berg, the new corporate engagement director, and Sydney Elliott, volunteer and events manager, to create more opportunities.

“The cool thing is, I don’t have to focus on one pillar – I can work on all the pillars, with everyone in the organization, to find out what is the greatest need at that moment,” Orr said. “We can help address it and solve it.”

For more information on United Way QC, click HERE.

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