United Way of America CEO Has Spent Two Decades as a Local Leader

When Brian A. Gallagher was growing up in Hobart, Ind., he and his family received public and

private assistance to make ends meet. He prefers to keep private the details of the help they received, but Mr. Gallagher says that experience set him on a course to assist others.

“I watched how those services were available, and I wanted to figure out how to make them available to more people,” he says.

Mr. Gallagher moved toward that goal at Ball State University, in Muncie, Ind., where he majored in social work and volunteered to help children with physical disabilities swim at the YMCA. While researching internships, he discovered a description of the United Way, an organization he had not heard of. “It talked about how United Way is an organization that brings together resources from the business community, individual donors, and collectively has a citizen group that decides what the most important issues are and invests the money,” he recalls. “And I said, yeah, I want to do that.”

And he has. After working at United Ways around the country — most recently as president of United Way of Central Ohio, in Columbus — Mr. Gallagher, 42, was appointed chief executive officer of the United Way of America. He starts his job in Alexandria, Va., in January.

He takes the helm at a challenging time for the organization, in part because of a slowing economy. Last year the 1,853 local United Ways raised $3.9-billion, only a 0.4 percent increase from the previous year after adjusting for inflation. Other challenges include rising competition from other charities and Internet donation services, a growing number of on-the-job solicitation campaigns by non–United Way groups, and an increase in the earmarking of charitable gifts from United Way donors, a trend that results in fewer discretionary dollars available for programs.

Mr. Gallagher has been at the forefront of a movement among local United Ways to deal with some of those trends by changing the role of the United Way. In Columbus, he has advocated a system whereby the United Way pinpoints broad social goals for programs it supports — and then asks to see tangible results on how the money helped meet those goals. Thus, the United Way of Central Ohio shifted from a fund-raising-only charity to one that collaborates with community leaders to identify local problems and come up with ways to fix them. “Success is not how much money you raise,” says Mr. Gallagher, “it’s whether you can actually measurably move the needle on impacting people’s lives.”

He must also come up with a way to improve relations between some local United Ways and the United Way of America. Former chief executive Betty S. Beene left the charity in January 2000, a year earlier than planned, after her plan for the United Way of America to take more of a leadership role in developing relationships with corporations and to centralize the charity’s pledge processing was rejected. Critics of Ms. Beene said that they preferred to work autonomously and that the United Way of America should primarily support local efforts.

Mr. Gallagher says he does not plan to impose a top-down approach in which the United Way of America sets the agenda. Instead, he wants to encourage partnerships among local United Ways. “What I can do is try to identify the most promising work in all of these different areas, try to generate resources for investment in them, and accelerate their development,” says Mr. Gallagher.

In an interview, Mr. Gallagher discussed his priorities and other issues:

Why did you want the top job?

Whenever you look at this kind of opportunity, you either see it as an insurmountable challenge or an incredible opportunity. I see it as an incredible opportunity. I’m young enough so that I’m not completely burdened by the way things have happened historically, and I’m old enough to have some level of context in terms of which paths not to go down and where opportunity really exists.

What are your top priorities?

We’ve got to position the United Way movement as a community-impact system. We’ve got to build the volunteer and professional leadership to pull it off. We’ve got to create world-class services for local United Ways, and we’ve got to be focused on accountability and transparency of how we do our business. We’ve got to become a voice for philanthropy, for the American people in how communities get stronger.

How will you put your ideas in place without alienating local United Ways?

I get a very clear sense of direction, I articulate as clearly as I can the destination we are headed toward, and I work with guidance and counsel of smart people around me, and that will include local United Ways around the country. One thing I said to my colleagues after my appointment is, “You’ve got to give me room to lead, but I will always work on behalf of the system. I will never do anything that is about feathering the United Way of America’s nest, because the United Way of America is just a component of this movement.”

What makes United Way relevant today?

The fact is that people will follow value. Whether you are big or small, if you give value for a philanthropic investment, people will come. There is still value in the breadth of United Way. There is no resource or system in this country in the private sector that touches more human beings than United Way. If United Way can say, “Look, if you care about, for example, whether there are fewer children that are abused, and we can show you that making that investment through us makes that happen,” then it follows that people will support the United Way. I wouldn’t be taking this job if I didn’t think the best days for United Way are ahead of us.

What is United Way’s greatest strength and weakness?

Our greatest strength is our ability through our relationships and our broad mission to bring communities together. Therefore, our biggest challenge is to not allow ourselves to be defined as an institution, or to become self-serving. Unless your community is successful, your United Way is not successful — I don’t care how much money you raise and how many programs you fund.

Four people have led the United Way since 1992. Do you plan to remain in this position for a while?

I never go into a job with a timeline. I always go into it saying I’m going to do this as long as I feel I am making a contribution, I’m valued, and I’m having fun. Having said that, our system needs for me to be successful and to be there for a while, just to give us some continuity and direction.

In five years, what is United Way of America going to look like?

I’m not focused on what the United Way of America looks like, I’m focused on what United Way looks like, and if the United Way is successful as a system and as a movement, then United Way of America will have taken care of itself. I’m not going into this saying, “Gee, how can I make the United Way of America a world-class institution?” I’m going into this saying, “What can I do to help the United Way movement around this country be as valuable as it can possibly be in changing and saving people’s lives?”

ABOUT BRIAN A. GALLAGHER, CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER OF UNITED WAY OF AMERICA

Education: Mr. Gallagher received a master’s degree in business administration from Emory University, in Atlanta, in 1992. He earned his bachelor’s degree in social work from Ball State University, in Muncie, Ind., in 1981.

Previous employment: Mr. Gallagher has worked at local United Ways for his entire professional career. Since 1996, he has been president of the United Way of Central Ohio, in Columbus. Before that, Mr. Gallagher spent six years at the United Way of Metropolitan Atlanta, most recently as executive vice president and chief operating officer.

Charitable interests: Mr. Gallagher serves on the board of trustees of Franklin University, in Columbus, and the Columbus Coalition Against Family Violence. He contributes financially to Ball State University and several organizations in Columbus, including the Columbus Zoo, the King Arts Complex, the Center of Science and Industry, and WCBE, a public-radio station.

Personal life: Married with two daughters, ages 13 and 8.