Debt is not usually your friend. High-cost debt can be especially damaging to your finances. Payday loans typically charge interest rates of 500% while credit card interest rates run closer to 25%. You can save a lot of money by paying off high-cost debts right away!
For more help with paying down debt, check out these resources on the Believe in Your Future website!
by Shannon Harmon
Resource Development Executive
Interns at GE recently lent their muscle-power to South Valley Sanctuary to help clean up their grounds. Our partnership with GE is invaluable as they contribute service, donations, and support to United Way of Salt Lake. Corporate partners like GE exemplify what it means to LIVE UNITED.
Thank you!
by Bill Crim
Senior Vice President of Collective Impact and Public Policy
We all learn to share (hopefully) from an early age. This universal principle often governs our private interactions and behaviors, but can be challenging when applied in our organizational and institutional lives – especially when it comes to data.
There are good reasons for this, of course. In the private sector, where organizational objectives are not typically shared, it doesn’t make sense to share data with competitors. In all settings (private, public and non-profit) privacy is of the utmost importance, especially when it comes to sensitive personal and financial information.
But when it comes to solving complex community problems – problems for which we all share accountability – we know that individual organizations and institutions cannot succeed alone. And we know that to work effectively together we have to share data. At the individual level, this is critical in order to effectively target interventions and to know, in real-time, if interventions are having the desired effect. Importantly, this has to be done within the bounds of state and federal laws and with the knowledge and permission of individuals whose data is being shared. At the community level, this is essential to know whether or not we are succeeding in solving the problems we are tackling.
While there are many barriers to implementing shared data and accountability systems, UWSL and our Promise Partnerships are working through these challenges to make this a reality here in Utah. With the support of Regence BlueCross BlueShield and the Promise Neighborhoods Institute, UWSL and our partners are implementing both a “rapid-time” data sharing system for individuals and a Promise Scorecard data system for community level data.
Our Promise Scorecard system tracks health, education, and financial stability data for each of our community partnerships – and will show progress over time as we work to improve the health, financial stability and educational outcomes in each Promise Partnership. According to the Results Leadership Group, the developers of the Results-Based Accountability Framework and the Promise Scorecard, “The scorecard is a platform for transparent, collaborative, and data-driven decision-making, which UWSL has fully embraced and implemented in their resolve to achieve results in their community. UWSL is at the forefront of the Promise Neighborhood initiative in their use of the Promise Scorecard as tool to report their data and demonstrate their progress.”
Over the next year, our rapid-time data sharing system will allow partners to improve the efficiency and quality of individual data collection, and to share appropriate data with other partners in order to target efforts more effectively. Together these systems will support the tremendous work being done in UWSL’s Promise Partnerships by the many individuals, organizations, and institutions that are committed to working together in new ways to actually SOLVE the complex challenges facing our communities.
by Chelsea Nelson
Interactive Communications Director
Last week, United Way of Salt Lake held their annual Diamond Donor Appreciation event at Red Butte Gardens. Diamond Donors have given to United Way of Salt Lake for 20 years or more and their dedication to our mission and to making our community a better place is unsurpassed. This year, we asked a few members what it meant to them to be a Diamond Donor and why they are involved with UWSL. Here is what Victoria and Toni had to say!
“It is quite an honor to be recognized as a Diamond Donor. Actually, very humbling.
We’ve been donating for over 30 years. When you put a number to it, it seems like a long time…yet, feels like it was only yesterday!
God has truly blessed our lives and we would like to bless the lives of others. It’s our way to give back to our community and to make a difference. You hear so many wonderful stories about the children, the elderly, and the other companies involved with United Way of Salt Lake.
We are also involved in the Day of Caring and every year we plan a special Summer Carnival and Christmas Program for the Kearns Children’s Center. A number of ATK employees and retirees volunteer their time for these special events at the Kearns Children’s Center. The children there are very special to us. Each child has a special story. Seeing their excitement and smiling faces just warms our heart. That’s what it’s all about! There’s the true blessing…those children bless our lives more then we could ever bless them!”
–Victoria Chadwick & Toni Payne
Thank you so much to all of our Diamond Donors who support United Way of Salt Lake! And thank you to everyone who came out to our Diamond Donor Appreciation event – it was a great success.
Also, a huge thank you to Questar for generously sponsoring this fun and important event.
Saving money can often be challenging and finding ways to cut spending is difficult when money is tight. Check out these 3 tips to cut spending painlessly:
Today’s savings tips are brought to you by America Saves!
