Helping Each Other

One community united 
by one goal.

From addressing basic needs to uniting a community under a common goal, we set the stage with much-needed fundraising and volunteering initiatives. The next ripple in our system of care.

COVID-19 Community Response Fund

Supporting vital services was key to ensuring that no one in our community was left behind. That’s why we launched the COVID-19 Community Response Fund — a city-wide fundraising initiative. In partnership with the City of Calgary and the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA), the COVID-19 Community Response Fund was up and running just two weeks after Calgary’s first presumptive case.

When the call went out for donations, you answered

  • 1,350

    individual donors

  • 81

    corporations & foundations

$11.8 Million*

distributed

  • 163

    agencies supported**

  • 262,881

    people given the support they need***

We are grateful to the Government of Canada and the Government of Alberta for their support of the COVID-19 Community Response Fund, and for entrusting us to invest funding where it was needed most.

Growing needs addressed by community partnerships

Some of our community's most influential organizations, the Calgary Flames Foundation and the Calgary Stampede, partnered with us to help address a multitude of needs.

Keeping high school students connected

Working together with the Calgary Board of Education and the Calgary Catholic School District, we identified 25 high schools where students had no means of completing their education online. Luckily, the Calgary Flames Foundation offered to help.

  • 450

    high school students received a laptop to help them graduate

  • A happy student in front of a Bishop McNally banner holds a cardboard box labeled 'Acer'
  • A happy student in front of a Bishop McNally banner holds a cardboard box labeled 'Acer'
  • A collage of 12 images, each with a child holding a sign with a word on it. The words combine to read 'Thank you Calgary Flames and United Way for my new Chromebook!'

Making sure basic needs are more than met

With high levels of unemployment and disruption of business activities, many Calgarians struggled to afford even the most basic needs like food and hygiene items. Partnering with the Calgary Stampede, we launched the first-ever #UnitedApart Basic Needs Round-Up, a basic needs drive to further support the people who make up our communities. Hundreds of volunteers, donors, and agencies came together to keep the community spirit alive during a time of great need.

  • A woman in a black cowboy hat delivers a red box of Huggies Diapers to another volunteer
  • A group of Calgary Stampede and Women in Need Society employees pose for a group photo
  • A volunteer in a red shirt and black mask poses near a donation pile and a banner reading United Way Calgary and Area
  • Two women in cowboy hats perform t-poses with a man in short pants
  • Volunteers pose with a large pile of donations with signs reading YA HOO

  • 360

    donors provided basic necessities to those who needed them the most

  • 5

    pallets of food and personal hygiene items were distributed by our Community Hubs Initiative

Women United for change

Women United is a network of female philanthropists dedicated to bringing about social change. In response to COVID-19, over 400 members helped raise money to support our community as it recovers from the pandemic.

$2,070,000

Raised

“We want to live in and be part of a community that cares for one another, and so we continue to support United Way because of its ability to reach and address the needs of people in Calgary and area.”  - Dave and Joan McLeod

Working as One

Once the giving is done, who gets what’s given?

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