THUNDER BAY – Kelly Gallagher is intimately familiar with the United Way of Thunder Bay, which makes her the ideal candidate to take over as president of the organization’s board of directors, says CEO Albert Brule.
Gallagher, who joined the United Way in 2016 and served as campaign co-chair in 2017 with her husband, Mike, takes over the role from Stephanie Noel and said she looks forward to helping the United Way of Thunder Bay have even more of an impact on the community.
“For me, it’s a really big part of being involved with the community,” Gallagher said on Friday.
“The United Way in Thunder Bay is really looking now at what is our community impact. When you live in Thunder Bay, and I’ve lived here my whole life, you see what’s going on and how can we help, how can we raise those dollars and really put them out in the community to have the most impact possible to get things done?”
Rather than focus on a monetary goal – the organization did not set an external fundraising target in 2019 and has no plans to release the total collected publicly – Gallagher said they’d rather focus on the results of doling that money out to more than two dozen agencies in the city and surrounding area.
Gallagher said it’s those same agencies where the biggest opportunities lie.
“There are some really great local agencies that have been around for a long time and also some really great grassroots agencies coming up, where people see a need in the community and want to make a difference,” she said.
“We have an opportunity through our funding process to work with all of them, to really see how we can ask where we can put our dollars to have the biggest impact on poverty in our community.”
It’s not easy, given the number of charities looking for money, but that’s not a problem that’s going away anytime soon, she said.
“The challenge is there’s more demand than supply. There is a lot of need in the community, so how do you figure out where to best spend your money. We look to some of our agencies and their initiatives to really help us do that. Thunder Bay is consistently an incredibly generous community, so how do we generate that as best as we can for the United Way to get those dollars in so we can put them in places that can really help,” Gallagher said.
Brule said Gallagher was the perfect fit to lead the board of directors.
“We’re thrilled to have Kelly step into the role as president of the board. She’s coming in at a time of exciting change and new direction for the United Way of Thunder Bay and because of her passion for the community and her experience with the United Way, I think she’s the ideal candidate to lead that transition.”
Brule said Gallagher will help guide the community impact plan process, to help figure out what the city’s biggest needs, ultimately attempting to end poverty in the city, ensure people’s needs are met, building a more inclusive community and to see the city where all youth graduate high school and move onto post-secondary education.
