UCalgary’s 2022 United Way Campaign

For faculty and staff: To donate, visit philanthropycloud.com, and log in using your UCalgary email address and password. Once you're logged in, you can select your donation amount and frequency, as well as your payment method. 

For everyone else: To donate, visit United Way of Calgary and Area's donation website and when prompted indicate your donation is part of the "University of Calgary" workplace campaign.

Since 1940, United Way of Calgary and Area has been dedicated to making our city a great place for everyone. United Way focuses on three areas that are critical to long-term sustainable change in our city: overcoming poverty, successful kids and strong communities. United Way strategically invests in programs, collaborations and initiatives, which connect Calgarians with opportunities that help them thrive. To see a full list of agency partners, please visit United Way’s website.

Your investment with United Way will stay local and be strategically invested right where you live, work, and raise your family. Your investment directly supports those who need it most. United Way’s three focus areas address the critical social issues facing our community, and United Way is committed to a rigorous measurement process with annual reporting. Find more details on United Way's funding process.

The modern United Way of Calgary and Area is a social impact organization that focuses on prevention, early intervention, and long-term systems change—changing the systems that create inequity. Our work involves bringing together groups of experts and community members to imagine and develop a network of care that is compassionate and tailored to the needs of individuals and families. Collaborating with different groups, such as government, other non-profit organizations and funders, corporations, Indigenous Elders, and others maximizes all our strengths to ensure we find new approaches to care for the most vulnerable in our community. We can act more comprehensively and partner on a broader scale to solve these issues by not only funding differently, but also by working together in new and innovative ways.

To keep pace with our changing world, United Way designs innovative and transformative solutions, collaborates on systems change, focuses on the person in need, and incorporates diversity, equity, and inclusion into everything we do. This approach represents a shift towards investing more of our efforts and funds into larger initiatives that are highly collaborative, transformational in nature, and address multiple issues. It’s hard to solve a problem if you don’t know why it exists, so we dig deep to uncover the underlying causes of social problems affecting our community. Together with the social sector and other partners, we are co-designing innovative and collaborative practices that focus on achieving our common goals.

Ultimately, donating to any charity is a deeply personal choice that should be fully made in alignment with an individual’s beliefs and values.

A full list of United Way of Calgary and Area’s agency partners can be found on their website.

Should any of the agencies supported by United Way’s investments not align with an individual’s personal beliefs and values, Donor Choice or “Donor Designation,” is an added service United Way offers to its donors that allows them to direct a portion or the entirety of their gift to any registered charity in Canada.

Thanks to our volunteers, United Way of Calgary and Area has one of the lowest fundraising costs in Canada. In 2022, United Way estimates fundraising and related operating costs will be between 14 and 15 per cent. This is well below the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA)’s acceptable level of 35 per cent. Administrative costs, in part, also fund initiatives that drive systems change and capacity building of the social sector—work that brings great value to our community.

United Way files an annual T3010 with Canada Revenue Agency and our financials are audited annually by an independent auditor. To see United Way’s detailed financial statements, click here.

United Way holds itself accountable to its donors, and invests donated resources as wisely, efficiently, and effectively as possible, generating a high return on community investment. We rigorously monitor and report on the impact of our investments so donors can be confident their investment is making a positive difference. 

In addition, United Way routinely earns top rankings from a variety of organizations that benchmark against other Canadian non-profits of similar scope and size. United Way has received a 4/4 star rating on Charity Intelligence for our financial and reporting transparency, accountability to donors, and overhead costs. MoneySense’s Charity 100, which rates 100 of the biggest charities in Canada based on finances and transparency, rated United Way as an A+ charity in 2019. United Way of Calgary and Area was also ranked among the top 10 charities on Maclean’s list of top 100 rated charities in Canada.

Here are a few ways that United Way works to keep fundraising costs low:

• In 2021, over 14,000 volunteers contributed over 690,000 hours.
• In 2022, we have 11 team members who have joined us as full-time employees to support our fall campaign efforts, at no cost to United Way
• In 2021, we leveraged in-kind and sponsorship support from 22 organizations, saving United Way hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Yes! This is the easiest way to donate. Any donation can be made via credit card, cash, cheque or payroll. Tax receipts for donations made by credit card, cash or cheque will be sent to the donor through email or mail. Donations made through payroll deductions will be included on the employee's T4 slip.

Yes. The majority of United Way’s work centers on partnering with many organizations in order to address immediate needs and underlying causes of social issues. While the ultimate goal is to prevent these issues from happening in the first place, United Way recognizes that policy barriers exist at municipal, provincial, and federal levels. By advocating change around these social policies, United Way can have a more significant impact in our community.

No. Every United Way event is generously sponsored by corporations or individuals who cover the costs. A complete listing of sponsors is available on United Way of Calgary and Area’s website.

United Way’s costs remain low for many reasons, including:

• Partnerships through workplace campaigns.
• Contributions by highly-skilled volunteers.
• Maximizing efficiencies and implementing economies of scale that are not possible through smaller organizations.
• Leveraging a proven history over 75 years, strong reputation, and high profile to receive sponsorship, pro-bono and discounted rates on some services, such as advertising and associated marketing materials.

As part of United Way’s stewardship of donor dollars, there is a rigorous process in place to ensure the best investment of resources. Experienced staff and volunteers make investment decisions based on community needs, research, and funding criteria. United Way invests to minimize duplication among programs and looks for measurable results, quality performance and innovative approaches. More information can be found on United Way of Calgary and Area's website.

All salaries at United Way, including senior management, are benchmarked against other Canadian non-profit organizations of similar size and scope. United Way of Calgary and Area is in compliance with the required T3010 regulatory reporting to CRA for its executive compensation, which can be viewed on the CRA website.