The president and chief executive officer of United Way of Southwest Alabama is stepping down after four years leading the Mobile-based nonprofit, taking a new position with a Florida affiliate of the organization.
During his tenure, which began in 2011, the outgoing leader is credited with reshaping how the organization allocates donor dollars, moving away from simply funding a fixed list of member agencies each year and toward a community impact model that targets specific programs addressing education, financial stability, health and other basic needs across the region.
A board leader for the organization, who also serves in human resources for Mobile-based shipbuilder Austal USA, praised the outgoing CEO’s work restructuring the nonprofit’s board and staff, updating its mission, and cutting administrative and fundraising costs by more than half during his time in charge. Campaign contributions grew for three consecutive years under his leadership, rising a combined 10 percent over that period.
Beyond fundraising changes, the organization incorporated a regional volunteer arm to boost community service participation and expanded its service area to include Choctaw County alongside Mobile, Baldwin, Clarke and Washington counties, which it has served since being founded as a Community Chest organization in 1926.
A search committee is being organized to conduct a nationwide search for a successor, with organizational leaders hoping to have a new CEO in place by the fall.
The departing executive, an upstate New York native, arrived in Mobile after leading a similar United Way affiliate in West Tennessee. He will now lead a United Way chapter based in central Florida that serves a multi-county area with a considerably larger annual budget.
United Way of Southwest Alabama says it has raised and invested more than $240 million in the region over its history, and its programs reach an estimated 600,000 people across the four-county service area each year. Local nonprofit leaders say the transition comes at a pivotal moment, with the organization continuing to expand its community impact funding model that was rolled out under the departing leader’s watch.
The organization recently announced plans to invest more than $4 million in dozens of local programs over the next two years, a sign that the funding approach put in place during the past four years is expected to continue regardless of who takes the helm next.