The United Way of Metropolitan Chicago underwent a variety of name changes and mergers throughout its history.
[2] It was in 1932 that the committee was officially recognized as a part of Illinois Governor Louis L. Emerson's Commission on Unemployment and Relief and named the Emergency Welfare Fund.
[1] Some of the Welfare Fund's first applications came from Chicago branches of Catholic Charities USA, the American Red Cross, and The Salvation Army, among others.
Also in 1932, the Chicago Urban League became the Welfare Fund's first member organization that primarily served minority communities.
Immediately following the war, Chicago's population boom created new issues that drew the attention of the Community Fund.
[6] Begun in the mid-1950s, this program nominally borrowed executives, from companies like ComEd, Northern Trust, and LaSalle Bank, to fundraise for the Community Fund.
Now incorporating suburban Chicago as well as the city proper, the Metropolitan Crusade of Mercy actively campaigned for funds annually, in addition to maintaining Community Chest's corporate employee fundraising program.
This merger brought the Crusade of Mercy's wide-ranging fundraising efforts more fully under the auspices of the United Way.
This act consolidated allocation efforts and allowed the new United Way to focus more attention on planning, research, public policy issues, and community referral services.
Comprehensive Community Services also participated in GAP, an initiative that aimed to raise awareness about and resources allocated for teen pregnancy.
[10] The debate holds that, in essence, determining need requires more than simply evaluating economic factors, and that to privilege one community is to deny another.
[11] In the mid-1990s, United Way created Outreach Committees to focus on and directly reach out to Chicago's minority communities.
In 2013, United Way of Metropolitan Chicago's primary initiative, Live United 2020, focuses on providing quality healthcare, financial stability and a good education to underserved communities to aid particularly poverty-stricken communities to battle Chicago's infamous iniquities, especially in the wake of Mayor Rahm Emanuel and the city's decision to close 40 Chicago Public Schools primarily in the economically stricken areas of the West and South sides.
In 2013, the Chair of the Board of Directors is Ellen Costello, CEO and US Country Head of BMO Financial Group.