A message from our CEO and Board Chair

Welcome to the first Impact Report from United Way Maritimes! 2024-25 was our first year as one unified organization, and we made big strides while continuing to address critical needs in our communities. We recognize this is a big change, and the decades of history in each community we serve are important. We hope you’ll find meaningful local examples of impact in this report, as well as examples of how we’re achieving more together. As we continue our journey as a unified organization, we’ll be developing a strategic plan in consultation with stakeholders like you. We look forward to sharing more of this in the future. 

New Community Impact Framework

Working together as one cohesive organization meant developing a new Community Impact Framework that informs our community investment, design and delivery of our own programs, our capacity building across the sector, and our thought leadership and advocacy efforts. It was built collaboratively with dozens of voices contributing, and by assessing evidence-based research and community knowledge. It is the foundation for local and regional decision-making, and it will also help us demonstrate impact, as we’ll measure against the same shared outcomes across the region. The Community Impact Framework is also a key step to informing our new strategic plan. We’re incredibly proud of how this came together, and we’re looking forward to putting it to use in our work.

While working on this framework, we also maintained the same year-over-year levels of community investment across all seven jurisdictions, stood up seven local community impact councils and continued to deliver programs that connect donors and community members to community needs. We are heartened by the commitment of local donors and volunteers to these efforts; they have demonstrated their continued trust in our unified organization.

Demonstrating leadership in the sector

United Way Maritimes continued to be a strong voice for the social sector. Funding to the sector remained our largest effort, with 165 programs and initiatives funded in 2024-25. Our staff demonstrated strong leadership and expertise this year, participating in over 50 committees and roundtables addressing poverty, affordable housing and homelessness, transportation, emergency management and preparedness and more. Additionally, staff continued to speak passionately about community needs and solutions with the media, at conferences and other public presentations. Advancing our government relations efforts as one organization is a priority, and we have continued and expanded efforts through communications, meetings and conversations.

Sector development and leadership has further grown through the East Coast Public Policy Training Institute (PPTI) and Executive Director (ED) Academy. PPTI graduated a second cohort of students in the fall, preparing them to advance the public policy priorities most important to their organization. A second cohort of ED Academy students also graduated in PEI, and the program launched in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, as well. The interest from the sector was significant, and classes are ongoing throughout 2025-26. We look forward to reporting on the impact of the expanded program next year.

Affordable Housing Division

Our affordable housing work grew rapidly this year with the establishment of an affordable housing division, and the announcement of three signature programs: the Sackville Tiny Home Community, which opened in late 2024, is now home to 60 residents who are receiving wrap around supports as United Way Maritimes owns and operates the community. The Sunnyside Community in Saint John was announced, and a zoning change and land purchase was finalized with the support of generous donors, partners and community members. And, significant effort on The Groves at Hillsdale was happening behind the scenes, as we worked with philanthropic and business partners to bring affordable home ownership and rentals to rural Nova Scotia.

The Affordable Housing Division also continued to produce a successful Housing Symposium in Halifax with new partners, and a new Advisory Committee was recruited and assembled for the Halifax Affordable Community Land Trust. There is more work ahead, but we’re excited to hit these milestones and share our successes with partners.

Financial accountability

Following our first year as a regional organization, we are stronger, both financially and operationally. Our 2023-24 financial results show we invested as much or more money than before into the communities we serve. We raised more money from fundraising, while spending less to raise it. Any new organization requires a huge amount of operational and systems work behind the scenes. We continue to strive for greater efficiency and to remain accountable to our donors.

The cornerstone of our success is continued strong local presence, leadership, knowledge, and decision-making. We are on a good path to address the root causes of poverty and the priority needs of people in the communities we serve. Our priorities are to help people realize their full potential by keeping them housed, safer and healthier, included and welcome, fed, and ready to work and learn successfully.

United Way Supporters

Donors to United Way Maritimes continue to be critical to creating change in our communities. Thank you so much for giving. We’re incredibly grateful for your trust in us, and we are excited to be able to share both the local and regional impact of your donations in this report.

We also hope you’re enjoying our regular newsletters with local impact stories and valuable regional content. In the coming year we’ll be hosting United by Song in three provinces. Previously known as Songs of the City in some jurisdictions, United by Song features first-voice storytellers, songwriters and performances. You can expect to hear even more inspiring stories of change from across our communities. We can’t wait to share it with you, it’s a night you won’t want to miss.

Thank you so much for your generous and loyal support of United Way Maritimes in 2024-25. We’ve already done so much together, and we’re just getting started!

To grow the impact of our initiatives and investments on people in our communities, united is the way forward.

• Sara Napier, CEO, United Way Maritimes
• Derek O’Brien, Board Chair, United Way Maritimes