United Way of Bedford County was organized in 1990 by community and business leaders, along with local health and human service agency representatives, that felt a strong need to establish one main fundraising effort for health and human service agencies serving Bedford County.

  Our United Way is a member of United Way of America, which is a support organization serving individual United Way organizations with training, research and marketing services. We are also a member of United Ways of Tennessee. United Way of Bedford County, along with 1400 other individual United Ways across the country, is governed by its own local volunteer Board of Directors. Each county is responsible for local fundraising and funding decisions are made locally by volunteers in each county.

  We are proud that our fundraising and administrative costs are low. In 2006 these costs were 15% of our collected pledges. That percent is well below the acceptable standards of the Better Business Bureau and the National Charities Information Bureau which recommends that these costs stay below 25%.

  We raised $30,000 in gross pledges during our first fund raising campaign in 1990. In 2006 we raised $237,000.