About United Way of Laramie County
United Way fights for the health, education, and financial stability of every person in every community. No matter the obstacles; no matter the odds. We surround a community’s most critical problems, and we fight—for those who need a voice, and those whose names we do not know.
In 2024, here’s just part of what your donations helped make possible:
Lives touched
through our program partners and direct services. Thousands found support when they needed it the most.
Basic needs met
from warm meals to safe shelter, we helped meet urgent needs with dignity and respect.
Children protected and empowered
providing mentorship, advocacy, and care for kids facing abuse, neglect, or simply needing a steady hand.
Tax returns filed
strengthening households by making every dollar count.
United Way History
In 1887, a Denver woman, a priest, two ministers and a rabbi got together.
Though it sounds like the beginning of a bad joke, what happened next wasn’t that the group walked into a bar; what they did do was recognize the need to work together in new ways to make Denver a better place.
Together, that group—Frances Wisebart Jacobs, the Rev. Myron W. Reed, Msgr. William J. O’Ryan, Dean H. Martyn Hart and Rabbi William S. Friedman—came up with an idea that became the nation’s first united campaign that benefitted 10 area health and welfare agencies. They created an organization to collect the funds for local charities, to coordinate relief services, to counsel and refer clients to cooperating agencies, and to make emergency assistance grants for cases that could not be referred. That year, Denver raised $21,700 for the greater good, and created a movement that would become United Way.
Locally, United Way has invested in making Laramie County a better place for families and individuals to call home since 1948.
United Way still provides solutions to our community’s toughest problems—but we’re not your grandfather’s United Way.
Today’s United Way is bringing people, organizations, and communities together around a common cause, a common vision, and a common path forward. In many communities, we’re the only nonprofit building up the cornerstones of education, financial stability, and health—and the only nonprofit bringing people together from all walks of life to be a part of local solutions.
We’re engaged in nearly 1,800 communities across more than 40 countries and territories, where people are powering big ideas and big action by donating, volunteering, and speaking out through United Way.
As we’ve grown up, we’ve become more than a fundraising organization. Rather than measuring our success in dollars raised, we measure our success in actual lives changed.
United Way impacts 61 million lives every year. We can do this because we have spent more than a century developing deep roots and trust in the communities we serve. That strong foundation provides us with the resources, reputation, and relationships needed to bring people and organizations together around innovative solutions.
Over the years, we’ve changed to address the challenges of a changing world, but the one thing that hasn’t changed is our focus on improving lives and strengthening communities.
Donate Today
Your donation has the power to impact your friends; your neighbors; your child’s classmates; maybe even your own family. Every donation we receive goes directly toward fostering hope and opportunity in Laramie County.