2021 Annual Report - Flipbook - Page 26
$20 MILLION: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR
TRANSFORMATIONAL CHANGE
In December 2020, author and philanthropist MacKenzie Scott gifted United
Way of Greater Nashville $20 million. We are so humbled by and grateful for
this significant gift—and this tremendous show of faith in our work. In 2021,
we completed a multi-step process to determine the best possible investment
of those funds, seeking input from a diverse cross-section of stakeholders
throughout the community. Three areas for investment were identified that had
the potential to create significant, meaningful change. The goals are aspirational
and $20 million alone will not be enough to accomplish the kind of big,
transformational change we want to see for our community. It will take all of us—
standing up and rallying around these efforts with the aligned mission of investing
in something big—something no one gift or one organization can accomplish on
their own. To create a thriving community, it will take the whole community.
The three priority areas of investment are:
High-Quality, Affordable Child Care
The pandemic highlighted the need for high-quality, affordable and accessible
child care as an essential service, and the need for an appropriately compensated
and highly trained early education workforce to sustain it. This service is not only
essential for setting our children up for future educational success but is crucial
to our families’ abilities to remain in the workforce and be financially self-sufficient
and stable.
Early Literacy and Grade-Level Reading
Our children’s success is the greatest investment we can make in our community.
The Blueprint for Early Childhood Success, a citywide effort to tackle the early
literacy crisis, is key to increasing third grade reading proficiency. We’re ensuring
high-quality learning environments from birth through third grade, addressing outof-school-time progress and connecting children and families to literacy resources.
Workforce Development
Our investment in workforce development helps individuals receive the education
and training to obtain a livable wage that sets them on the path toward a stable,
financially secure future. We work with nonprofits, colleges and the business
community to upskill workers and build pipelines of employment—with an
emphasis on those coming from disenfranchised communities.
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