United Way of Berks County celebrates 100 years of impact in 2025. For over a century, we’ve stayed true to our founding spirit, uniting people from all walks of life and various organizations to create help, hope, and opportunity for those in need.
While we’ve evolved over the years, our unwavering commitment to the community and our dedication to helping neighbors remain at the heart of everything we do. Explore our journey and see how we’ve made a difference together.
Twenty-five organizations form the Welfare Federation of Berks County on April 14, 1925. The Federation was focused on improving the health and welfare of citizens, caring for people in crisis and supporting area youth and the poor. One hundred years later, four of the original organizations – American Red Cross, Visiting Nurse Association (now Tower Health at Home), Boy Scouts, and Salvation Army – continue today as United Way agency partners.
In its first campaign, the Federation touts the benefits of coordinated fundraising: saving money, time and effort, ensuring justice, preventing duplication, protecting the public, providing year-round efficiency, and building community spirit. The campaign, dubbed “The Community Chest,” raises $257,049 from 25,000 donors.
Alarmed by an infant mortality rate of 22% and hospital costs that were out reach for many, the Federation provides funding for two critical programs: Eleven Baby Welfare Stations were opened throughout the county, bringing maternal and infant care directly to patients in rural areas, and all three local hospitals receive funding to provide charity care to those who cannot afford to pay.
Fourteen years after its founding, the Welfare Federation changes its name to the Community Chest, adopting the moniker used for its fundraising campaigns.
Community leaders recognize the need to both support the war effort and to continue to aid local citizens in need. The result was the Community and War Chest, a collaborative campaign initiative that offered donors the ability to make one gift to support the needs of people at home and the fighting forces abroad. The Red Feather is chosen as a national symbol for Community Chests. It signifies good deeds and voluntary giving to meet human needs
A rising need for mental health care among service members returning from war and skyrocketing cases of diphtheria, measles and polio among children bring community health needs to the forefront in Berks County. The Community Chest partnered with the Visiting Nurse Association to inoculate children against diseases, while Community Chest funding to the Guidance Institute allowed the organization to expand mental health services to returning soldiers.
Community Chest and its agencies merge with the newly formed United Fund in 1956 creating an organization of local and locally focused national providers of social services. Founding leaders included Ferdinand Thun, Frank R. Palmer and Richard Caron. The first United Fund Campaign topped $1 million with 396 Berks firms conducting campaigns among their employees.
For the first time, the United Fund campaign benefits from the assistance of “Loaned Employee Campaign Counselors” – three employees loaned to the effort from local businesses. This initiative, after a number of years of trial and error, eventually became the Loaned Campaign Specialist (LCS) program in 1968.
As Reading School District reports 39 percent of its students drop out between seventh and twelfth grade, the United Fund studies the issue and targets school readiness as one factor. A pilot program is launched at Fellowship House to help “culturally deprived” children prepare for kindergarten and one year later Operation Head Start Kicks off. The program initially serves 270 pre-K children at 17 centers, making the Berks program among the largest in the state.
On January 8, 1971, the organization’s name is changed to United Way of Berks County and the national logo is adopted.
United Way forms the Tocqueville Society, a leadership giving program for committed community leaders donating at an exceptional level. Begun with three founding couples – Carolyn and Jerry Holleran, Sam and Kay McCullough, and Paul and June Roedel – today’s Tocqueville members number more than 150 individuals and couples giving $10,000 or more.
On September 10, 1992, more than 150 volunteers participate in the first United Way Day of Caring, which will become the organization’s signature volunteer event. Participants assist with hearing screenings at Berks Deaf and Hard of Hearing, host a back-to-school party children at Easter Seals, and complete other projects at 25 agencies.
By 2000, 61percent of mothers are working outside the home and two out of every three infants and toddlers have parents who work. With funding from local foundations, a campaign challenge match and other grants, United Way embarks on a multi-year Child Care Initiative to help meet ever-growing needs and to improve quality, accessibility and affordability of care. In its first years, more than $500,000 is awarded to seven agencies, bringing the number of Initiative-funded slots to over 1,000 children.
The City of Reading is awarded federal and state Weed & Seed grants to revitalize the Sixth Ward neighborhood over a five-year period. As local police weed out crime and drug dealers, United Way assumes responsibility for providing the seeds to improve the neighborhood. Its efforts include hiring and training outreach workers, coordinating loans to small businesses, restoring city homes for low-income families, and providing mini-grants for street lights, community gardens, and summer camp programs for neighborhood kids.
In the largest volunteer effort in United Way’s history 2,000 Day of Caring volunteers descend on Reading’s riverfront in a project called Riverquest. People from local businesses, schools, and the community clean and beautify a two-mile stretch along the Schuylkill from the Bingaman Street Bridge to Baer Park, picking up trash, painting benches, planting flowers and restoring fishing docks.
The Right from the Start initiative kicks off in 2005 aimed at providing children in low-income neighborhoods with early school success. The multi-faceted effort includes prenatal care, parenting classes through a new Baby College program, childcare education for informal (non-center) providers, and an early literacy effort called Raising a Reader. In its first year, Baby College reaches 58 participants with 80 children and 100 percent of attendees report increased knowledge of development stages, the importance of routines, and how to maintain a safe home.
Following The Great Recession of 2009, community needs grow exponentially. United Way launches a successful effort to bring 211 to eastern Pennsylvania and establishes programs to help individuals and families become more financially stable, to give kids the tools they need to thrive in school and to improve access to food. The Big Cheese, the largest United Way meal packaging event in the country, brings together volunteers to assemble nutritionally fortified, non-perishable macaroni and cheese meals. By 2024, more than 5,000 volunteers have packaged 2,550,000 meals
In 2012, the Ready.Set.READ! initiative launched in response to declining PSSA scores among local third graders in nearly every school district. With the understanding that reading on grade level by the end of the third grade is a critical indicator of future success in school and life, Ready.Set.READ! established a range of programs, including Growing Readers, Star Readers and Read Alliance, to support parents, students and educators in the areas of early childhood education, kindergarten readiness and third grade reading proficiency. This work helps puts students on the path to academic success.
As we focus on our community’s future, United Way’s Leadership United programs prepare individuals to serve as our next organizational and community leaders. Programs offering developmental experiences tap the talents of underrepresented groups with the Blueprint for Leadership program, engage the next generation through Emerging Leaders United and shape community leadership with our Leadership Berks program.
A new virus shuts down the country, and United Way rises to the challenge of meeting significant community needs during the crisis. Through the Berks COVID-19 Response Fund, United Way rapidly raises and distributes more than $1 million to ensure local nonprofits are able to continue their work. Thousands of donated PPE items are distributed regularly, and, as schools reopen, grants are awarded to local school districts to help mitigate learning loss.
A $10 million unrestricted grant from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott provides new opportunities to impact Berks County. A volunteer advisory committee develops strategies to ensure maximum impact by seeding current programs and initiatives and by providing grants to expand support to vulnerable populations, address systemic issues and create sustainable change.
As we reflect on 100 years of service to Berks County, we recognize that partnerships, collaboration and innovation have continually propelled us forward and helped us meet ever-changing needs. While we can’t predict what the future holds for United Way of Berks County, we will continue to strive for a community where basic needs are met and everyone thrives. We are grateful to the multitude of donors and volunteers who have supported us over the last century, and we eagerly look forward to the next 100 years.