What does United Way of Galveston do to help Galveston recover? We do what we do every single day – we connect people who can help to those who need help.

Following Hurricane Beryl, we are working closely with and for the Galveston County Recovery Fund as their Fund Administrator and Fiscal Agent. Our job is to deploy grants to organizations who are helping people in Galveston recover from Hurricane Beryl (and the subsequent power outage), and we started about 3 days before the lights came back on. Seriously, we were convening meetings and making emergency grants beginning Thursday, July 11, for a storm that made landfall only three days prior, and before we could access our own offices. We built a fresh website for GCRF before storm season began so that we were ready. And, we are so glad we were ready.

United Way of Galveston activated our disaster protocol 72 hours prior to Beryl making landfall as a category 1 hurricane, and we are continuing our disaster recovery support services as long as Galveston needs us to do so.

One of our jobs at United Way of Galveston is to be is a conduit for emergency funding. We leverage our relationships with our community (nonprofit service organizations, the school district, the healthcare sector, and employers of all sizes) to uncover immediate and emerging needs after a storm, and find providers for those needs.

After a disaster, there is an increased need for community resources. There is also an increased need for “someone” to manage those resources. When disasters strike and outside donations are directed our way, people are looking for an organization that they know and trust to both receive them and distribute them.

United Way of Galveston has been serving Galveston Island for more than one hundred years (BOI in 1923) and we have no plans to stop. Our dedication to THIS community is why we are entrusted to serve as the fiscal agent for the Galveston County Recovery Fund. We are excellent financial stewards, and we have expertise in managing influxes of donations as well as efficiently disbursing them to worthy and vetted organizations.