ShareThisPart of the United Way team since 1997, Eric McDonnell is a committed and passionate advocate for children, families, and communities. As Executive Vice President, he provides strategic and operational leadership, setting priorities that enable United Way of the Bay Area to deliver on our mission: to be the catalyst that enables people to strengthen their communities by investing in one another.
Q. What part of your job do you enjoy most?
Bringing people together to solve a problem in the community. United Way holds an important position as a trusted, unbiased convener that gathers the community together to tackle tough issues. I really enjoy that role – identifying a challenge, then bringing parties together, helping develop and strengthen relationships, so we can all focus on the challenge at hand. I believe this is the best way to leverage all the strengths and resources in our community!
Q. What is the best kept secret about United Way?
Everyone knows our brand and our history as a workplace fundraiser, but a lot of people are still in the dark about our community impact work. We’ve moved away from the “thermometer”; we no longer solely measure our success by the dollars raised during our annual campaign.
For the last decade, we have increased our focus on impact – making a real difference in our community, changing lives by delivering and supporting high-quality community programs. People are just getting to know us as an organization that is achieving community impact.
We are an instigator and enabler of real community change. We’re operating and leading programs that impact lives and families, like Week of Caring, 211, SparkPoint and Earn It! Keep It! Save It! There are a lot of people in our community who benefit from these programs, and we need to do a better job of letting everyone know that United Way leads and operates them – and that we need their support as donors, volunteers and advocates to continue to grow and expand the important work that we do.
Q. What is the biggest challenge you face as executive vice president at United Way?
Determining the best way to spend my time. At any given moment, there can be fifty different opportunities on my desk, and I have to quickly determine which ones are the most promising and can achieve the most impact. Then, once a project is underway, I have to continually assess whether it is going to work out as planned, or if I need to bail out and focus on other opportunities.
Q. What is the most important role United Way is playing during this recession?
Our mission really spells this out clearly: United Way is the catalyst that enables people to strengthen their communities by investing in one another. We are mobilizing our community, making it possible for every person to make a difference, ensuring no one is left behind in the recovery. We encourage people to give through our annual campaign, we provide volunteer opportunities through Week of Caring and Earn It! Keep It! Save It!, and we engage people in our public policy and advocacy work, such as our recent advocacy around the Jobs Now program and the Calling for 211 Act.
Our goal is to cut poverty in the Bay Area in half by 2020. It’s a bold goal, but we’re in the perfect position to engage and mobilize our community to achieve that goal. [Learn more and get involved in United Way’s efforts to create pathways out of poverty at www.uwba.org/mobilize.]
Q. What do you do for fun?
I love playing basketball, bowling and working out. I also spend a lot of time with my family, most recently traveling around the Bay Area to my two younger children’s band competitions.
Prior to joining United Way of the Bay Area, Eric served as executive director of the Audrey L. Smith Developmental Center in San Francisco, a childcare and social services provider for more than 250 families. His decade of work at the center lent itself to the issues he now oversees for United Way of the Bay Area. Eric holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in public administration from the University of San Francisco. Eric lives in Vallejo and is a husband and father of three children.
