United Way of Western Crawford County, Inc.

Specific Need

When you give to United Way of Western Crawford County during Crawford Gives 2026, you're doing so much more than making a donation. You're investing in your neighbors, strengthening local families, and building a brighter future for our communities.

Help More Children Fall in Love with Reading

This year, we're raising funds to launch StoryBook Trails throughout Western Crawford County.

Imagine taking a walk through a local park or community space where every few steps reveal the next page of a children's story. StoryBook Trails combine literacy, physical activity, family time, and outdoor exploration into one unforgettable experience. They encourage children to read, move, imagine, and discover together while creating free learning opportunities that are available to everyone, every day.

Your support will help purchase display materials and installations needed to bring these interactive literacy experiences to communities across Western Crawford County.

Keep Books Arriving in Mailboxes Every Month

For more than 500 local children, one of the most exciting days each month is the day a brand-new book arrives addressed just to them.

Through Dolly Parton's Imagination Library, children from birth through age five receive a high-quality, age-appropriate book delivered directly to their home every month at absolutely no cost to their family.

Those monthly books help build vocabulary, school readiness, confidence, and a lifelong love of reading before a child ever steps into a classroom.

As postal rates and program costs continue to rise, it now costs approximately $1,500 each month to provide books and postage for children throughout Western Crawford County.

Your Crawford Gives donation helps ensure every eligible child can continue receiving the gift of reading, one book at a time.

Build Hope, One Home at a Time

Everyone deserves a safe place to call home.

During 2026 Make A Difference Season, volunteers from across our community will come together to complete critical home repair projects for local homeowners who simply cannot afford them.

Funding from Crawford Gives will help complete five critical home repair projects, with an estimated direct project cost of $3,000. These repairs often include accessibility improvements, safety modifications, and essential exterior or interior work that allows older adults, individuals with disabilities, and struggling families to remain safely in their homes.

It's more than fixing houses. It's preserving dignity, independence, and hope.

Every Dollar Goes Directly to Service

One hundred percent of the funds raised for these featured initiatives support direct program expenses. Your generosity purchases books, literacy materials, construction supplies, and the resources needed to make these projects possible for local families.

Not Sure Which Cause to Support?

Support them all.

When you give to the United Way of Western Crawford County, you're investing in the organization uniquely positioned to see the entire picture of our community's needs.

We carefully evaluate programs based on financial responsibility, strong leadership, measurable outcomes, and lasting community impact. Rather than supporting just one project, your gift helps create solutions across education, financial stability, health, housing, and basic needs.

Your donation reaches farther because United Way works alongside local nonprofits, businesses, volunteers, schools, and community leaders to make every dollar work harder.

Mission

Together, leading, serving, and empowering our community to improve lives.

Profile

United Way of Western Crawford County is more than a fundraising organization — we’re a catalyst for change. By uniting individuals, nonprofits, and local partners, we tackle our community’s most pressing issues in education, income, and health. Through initiatives like IMPACT and SAFETY NET, we support academic success, workforce readiness, and provide emergency services like food and shelter. Our Community Improvement Center helps residents make their homes safer and more accessible, while Imagination Library delivers free books monthly to children under five, promoting early literacy. Together, we create lasting change and improve lives — one donation, one family, one future at a time.