- Welcome to "Inland Edition," where this season, we're having conversations with people [light background music] who represent nonprofit organizations, working to make the Inland Empire a better place.

My name is Joe Richardson.

I'm a local attorney, Inland Empire resident, and your host.

And today, we're going to chat with Kimberly Starrs, the president and CEO of Inland SoCal United Way and United Way of the Desert.

United Way provides a variety of high-impact services for the communities they focus on.

These include collecting and reporting data on community needs and resources, preventing eviction and homelessness by distributing financial support for housing costs, strengthening skills for individual job placement, connecting vulnerable populations with services aimed at increasing self-sufficiency, and distributing emergency financial support to small businesses in the time of need.

Born and raised in Palm Springs and proud of her Latinx heritage, Kimberly Starrs is not only a fan of "Star Trek," cats, and culinary school, but she has worked with United Way for over 18 years where she was instrumental in expanding the agency's revenue from $3 million to over a hundred million dollars a year.

She chairs several boards in the business and nonprofit communities.

And, one of her core beliefs is that every person deserves to lead a joyful and fulfilling life.

Let's meet her, and learn more about how United Way helps our community on a daily basis.

[soft piano music] ♪ [gentle upbeat music] ♪ ♪ ♪ - [Joe] So, from the Inland SoCal United Way, we've got our president and CEO Kimberly Starrs.

Thank you and welcome to "Inland Edition."

- Thank you so much for having me.

It is such a pleasure to be here.

- You know, your organization is what I call a "name brand", in that even though they're all wonderful, everybody kinda knows about the United Way.

So, what we're gonna do is we're gonna talk about some things that'll let people know what they need to know about the United Way, right?

And, we're gonna add to that.

But, let's start off by building the house.

Talk a little bit about your background and how you came into this nonprofit space.

- Yeah.

Thanks for the question.

It's one of my favorite things to talk about.

Something that my colleagues and I talk about frequently is that there's not always a straight pathway to enter into social service or public service, and certainly wasn't the plan for me.

Growing up in the Coachella Valley, I wanted to be a singer!

And, I wanted to be on stage, and it didn't quite turn out that way for me.

- Okay.

- But, I'm really grateful that I'm here today.

But, I always knew I wanted to do something that would help my community, and I didn't know what that would look like.

So, I found myself kind of in between jobs, deciding what I wanted to do with my life.

A young woman with, you know, not a lot of ties, but a lot of big dreams.

- Sure.

- And, the position came open at United Way of the Desert, and I applied with kind of the intention of looking for other things at the same time.

And, I even said so in my interview.

So, I'm astonished that they- - Wow!

- actually hired me.

- Look at that!

- But, it was meant to be.

So, I fell in love with the mission of the organization, and the people, and the opportunity that it provided to connect folks across all different socioeconomic stratospheres.

And, wherever you come from, whoever you are, as long as you love your community, there's a place for you.

- Talk about the mission - Sure.

- of the United Way and give us a 101.

Because, we all think we know the United Way.

We've seen the logo, right?

(Kimberly chuckles) - Mm hm!

- We think we know it!

But, let us know as if maybe we don't know it, and we'll find out maybe there's some things we know and some things we don't.

- You know, United Way is kind of the OG of philanthropy for the middle class.

- Oh, yeah.

No doubt about it.

- So, way back, the organization is more than 125 years old, and it came out of this need that people saw in their community of there being gaps for their neighbors, and they didn't think that was okay.

So, they knew somebody had to do something and they were that somebody.

So, way back 125 years ago, a group of people came together and said, "You know, we wanna care for our community in ways that really matter."

And, that idea spread.

Shocking, right?

That idea spread.

So, we went through a lot of different iterations.

If you've ever played Monopoly, the Community Chest?

- Yeah.

- That's United Way.

That's where we started.

So, you pay into a common cause, and then it's distributed across your community in ways that make a difference.

But, what you might not know about our United Way is that we serve about a million people - Wow.

- every single year in the Inland region.

Our mission is to empower our community and improve lives.

And, across the United Way global network, that means something different to every single person.

But, here in the Inland region, it means housing, it means economic mobility, it means health, and it means just real security for our community.

- [Joe] Wow.

So give us the playing field, the chess pieces on the board of the-?

Of the United Way.

You're talking about Monopoly!

(Kimberly chuckles) Talk about some of the components, you know?

Particularly, I really want to get into programs people don't really know about.

- Yeah.

So our United Way, we transformed ourselves over the past probably 15 years from that pass-through agency that raises money via workplace-giving campaigns, works with community volunteers, and distributes the money to agencies across the community.

That's kind of the traditional model that people think of when they think of United Way.

We've kind of moved away from that because the world's changed.

You know?

People can make gifts directly to an agency that they really care about.

- Right.

- And, of course, we'll always be here to facilitate gifts that people want to make.

But, we knew that there were gaps that existed that we could fill.

So, over the past about 15 years, we made a shift into direct service.

- Okay.

- So, we offer about 40 different programs to serve our community, and that's how we serve a million people every year.

Our largest programs are 211 contact center.

It's a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week, really a hotline that people can call when they're in need.

So, your house is on fire; you call 911.

Right?

Well, we really believe that if you are looking at an empty cupboard and you've got hungry kids in your home, that's as much of an emergency as your house being on fire.

And, where do people go?

- Right.

- Well, that's where 211 comes in.

So, we're able to assist folks in finding resources that are close to them, convenient, and we can even enroll them over the phone for direct service and benefit programs.

It's a real safety net for our community, and we get about 450,000 calls a year.

- Oh, my God.

The Inland region- - Mm hm?

- is really big, really vast.

- Yep!

- A lot of ground to cover.

- Mm hm.

How do you guys do it?

Are you decentralized?

Do you guys have offices everywhere?

You know, maybe a silly question to some people, but I really don't-- I really don't know!

(Kimberly chuckles) You know, how do you guys do that?

- Yeah.

So, the pandemic changed everything for us, which I think is-?

You talk to anybody and that'll probably be the case!

And, we went from very, like, office-centric space to being forced to being remote immediately, overnight.

- Wow.

- The contact center, the 211 contact center was actually activated by Office of Emergency Services on the statewide level and also locally during the early stages of the pandemic.

So, there was no downtime.

There was no sourdough bread baking!

None of that happened for our team.

So, everybody just went home and continued on connecting peoples to services.

We actually had an increase in calls during the pandemic, and that has never slowed down.

- Wow.

- So, folks-- We really encourage communities of disability, communities with less access, and folks that maybe would have a more difficult time in a traditional office setting to come and work with us 'cause we know that these are the folks who understand what our community needs are, and we really find value in being inclusive in our workforce.

So, most of our folks are at home answering those calls and connected via virtual platforms.

And we do have a couple of office locations, as well.

- Alright.

So, is that the biggest lesson, maybe, or some of the biggest lessons that came out of COVID?

Flexibility, portability?

- Yeah.

- You know, those types of things?

- That is such-- Yes!

Absolutely, yes.

So, we went from doing a couple of, like, really important, I think, programs pre-pandemic, and then we got activated.

And, the real power of United Way came to the forefront during the pandemic.

- Right.

- We worked in partnership with the local municipalities and distributed about $300 million in rental assistance.

- Wow.

- Kept 27,000 families housed that were at risk of eviction, that were at risk of homelessness.

And, we were so proud of that effort.

And, that was only possible because of us being forced into this paradigm shift - Right.

- during the pandemic.

It was not a question of if we can but how are we gonna be able to do this?

- Right.

What's the hardest part about what you do?

- Oof!

Hearing the stories.

I think that is the hardest part.

And, it's not just the stories of people we serve.

It's the people who give their life for service and come and work in our agency.

There's still such a struggle.

It's not the most glamorous position.

It's not the most glamorous place to work.

And, day in and day out, I've got 150 incredibly dedicated employees who listen to stories that will break your heart, and they continue to come back day after day.

And, that tells me that I have the best team in the world showing up for the Inland region every day.

- And, speaking of your fantastic team, let's go to a couple team members at Inland SoCal United Way doing the work.

[light upbeat music] ♪ - My name is Isabel Sanchez with Inland SoCal United Way, and I'm the director of philanthropy.

I go out to ask for donations with our partners.

I share stories.

I share the impact of the work that we do, and this is how we fund a program like Kids Pack.

So, the Kids Pack program was created in 2005 to fight food insecurities for children kinder through 8th grade.

We are able to deliver bags full of nutritious food so that kids have something to eat during the weekend when they do not have access to their free lunch at school.

I work with one of our partners that donates to United Way.

And, somebody like myself went out to do a presentation and encourage donations, encouraged us to give.

And, I thought, that's where I wanna be.

And, the reason I came here is because I thought if I'm gonna leave my small children to come out here and work, then I wanna do meaningful work.

And, the reason that it had such a big impact on my life is because I grew up without having.

So, I know what it's like to need.

And, I can also tell you that that's who gives; the people that do not have a lot but they've been through those similar situations.

We bring hope.

We wanna make the world a better place.

We wanna strengthen our community.

We want to help people live their best lives.

We want to have the ability for them to live for a better tomorrow; to have a chance.

- I'm Sayra Cisneros, and I work for Inland SoCal United Way 211+.

I am the Outreach and Emergency Service program manager.

And, what I do, part of my job is to basically go out in the community and educate our community on emergency preparedness.

Outside support is so important.

A dollar makes a difference.

$5 makes a difference in our community.

So, being able to provide or give those resources to United Way will make a huge impact in our community.

It could, like I said, it could feed somebody.

It could provide different resources, job training, job placement, a lot of other stuff that we work within our organization.

What you get out of volunteering is that it's meaningful.

Not only that, but you're giving back to our community.

You're making a difference.

Like I said before, it doesn't matter if it's one hour, two hours, three hours, whatever it is, you're making an impact in our community.

[light upbeat music] ♪ - [Joe] How are you guys funded?

That's a broad question, (Kimberly laughs) but I'm sure there's elements.

- Yeah.

- You know, elements.

Does it split up a certain way in terms of percentage?

This is, you know, just-- people, they give.

These are grants; these are government.

You know, how does that go?

- [Kimberly] So, all of the above.

So, if you would've asked me 15 years ago, we would've been mostly corporate and individually funded.

So, just regular gifts that would come in by workplace campaign, corporate gifts; private philanthropy, really.

Today, we are almost entirely funded by grants and contracts.

- Really?

- And, we made that shift intentionally.

When you see so much difficulty in the state of workplace, it's not a great place to kind of stake your revenue model.

- Right.

- So, yes; absolutely.

Forever and ever, always, we'll be grateful and connected to workplace giving.

But, we knew if we were gonna really be here for the folks who need us in the Inland region, we needed to have more.

And, the way for us to grow our agency was really through grants and contracts.

- So, I imagine there's some advocacy piece there in terms of, you know, being in front of government folks and everything.

Because, they have the purse strings, and they need to know- - Yeah.

- how/what the United Way is doing and what it's doing now and how to facilitate it, continuing to do what it does.

Talk about advocacy efforts and is that "you?"

- Yeah!

- Or, is that you have a department, a group of people dedicated to that?

How does that go?

- Sure.

We've got a couple of folks in our team.

I've got an executive director of government relations who's fantastic.

And, a shout-out to Assemblymember Eloise Reyes Gomez for leading AB 3020 for us.

- Yeah.

- Which is a 211 bill.

So, there isn't a statewide or national funding mechanism for 211.

- Right.

- So, while it is definitely a necessary service, it's kind of like the Spider-Man meme where everybody's pointing at each other and saying like, "You pay for it, you pay for it."

And, there's really nobody to pay for it!

- Right.

- So, we're really trying to identify some statewide funding for that.

And, boy.

It is-- It can be a challenge, especially considering the budget environment that we're in, in the state of California.

But, that doesn't negate the need that folks have and those calls that we are continuing to answer.

So, yes.

Advocacy is a huge thing that we do at United Way, and we do it in partnership with the other United Ways across the state.

And so, we have a larger impact, and we're able to kind of push those things forward that we really care about.

- Tell us about your work with-- I mean, you're in the Inland area, and Inland, both Riverside County and San Bernardino County are now majority-minority.

- Mm hm.

- We have-- I think one of our strengths, of course, would be our diversity.

- Yep.

- Diversity of all types.

Are there any barriers in particular with connecting with other audiences, which are the majority audiences- - Mm hm!

- now in our area?

Talk about how you guys connect the dots to do that.

Because maybe, sometimes, and I don't know.

Maybe sometimes certain populations might look at something that they heard about or that they know about it, they're not sure it's for them, or whatever that might be.

How do you do that?

- Well, I think our strength is in our team.

So, like I said, we have 150 employees, and we intentionally hire from peer communities.

- Right.

- So, if you're going to work in a reentry program, we wanna make sure that you have that lived experience so that you're not just being prescriptive about solutions for folks.

And, we work in partnership with the community.

We're very intentional with hiring peers across all of our departments and all of our programs.

And, one of the things that I'm really passionate about is lived experience being a key indicator for leadership.

So, I am really not interested in somebody who's never struggled a day in their life to come in and tell others how they should budget their money or do this, that, or the other action when you've never faced that yourself.

I've had significant struggles in my life, and it really informed my ability to have compassion and care for people that face impossible choices.

- I always like to say, "You can't take people where you haven't been."

- Yep.

- And, there's a certain credibility and reality that comes from having had struggles yourself.

And so, inevitably, you know, what you do is super difficult, but the goal is clear.

It's like climbing a mountain, right?

- Mm hm.

- Tell us, give us a story.

Is there a story that you have, even recently, that kind of reminds you of your why?

Your W-H-Y?

- Yeah.

- And, kind of you going in the tough moment?

- Yeah.

So, we-?

One program that I am so proud of right now that just started for us is we are one of the pilots for the California State's Guaranteed Income Pilot Program.

So, we are the largest pilot in the state; $10 million program that's going to offer unconditional payments to pregnant women, and foster.

So, former foster youth and 500 pregnant people.

They are payments of $600 a month for 18 months for pregnant people.

And, $750 a month for foster youth.

A transformational opportunity to say, "Here's the power of income."

And, back to your question of the story, when I heard about this project and the opportunity, I said, "Absolutely, yes.

We have to do this.

We have to be a part of this."

And, I tell this story a lot.

When I had my first son-- He's almost 14 now, so this is some time ago.

I was working two jobs, really struggling to make ends meet.

And, every single day wondered, "How the heck am I gonna keep this kid in diapers?

"How am I gonna keep feeding this kid?

This feels impossible."

And, I think about the impact of a program like Guaranteed Income and what that could have done for me.

- Right.

- And, I could've been a better mother, I could've been more at ease.

I could've enjoyed those early years with my baby.

And, I wonder how many people do we leave behind?

We leave folks behind when there aren't resources available.

We leave folks behind when we say, "Figure it out."

And so, it is so empowering for me to be able to offer this program to our community and say, "We believe in you."

- Right.

- "You're enough."

- What are the factors you say that make Inland SoCal United Way unique?

- Hmm.

The Inland region is a special place.

It's home.

It's my childhood home.

People here are really resilient.

We look at our neighbors on the West Coast, and it kind of feels like the world is at their feet, right?

Everything is just-- It's there.

The center of innovation, funding, everything.

- Right.

- And, in the Inland region, we've always had to be scrappy.

- Right.

- But, by being scrappy, I think we advance ahead and leap ahead where others might struggle with indecision.

- You serve a million people a year.

- Mm hm.

- If you had a wish list, a resource wish list, you can fill in the blank: "We could do more of this or do this, which we haven't done before if we had this."

- Such a good question; there's so many needs.

But, when I think about what our callers ask us for; the top three needs: housing- - Right.

- Utilities, and food.

We need more affordable housing here in the Inland region.

It doesn't matter how many resources we have in preventative or shelter or any of those.

Those are all important and we are proud to provide them, but we need affordable housing.

We need units.

We need people to be able to achieve that American Dream.

It is so out of reach for folks.

And, if there was more funding available for us to be able to really pay people a livable wage-?

You know, we produced a report in partnership with the United Ways of California called The Real Cost Measure.

And, what it tells us, that in Riverside and San Bernardino County, takes about $78,000 a year for a family to just make ends meet.

That's not vacations.

That's not, you know, an extravagant lifestyle.

That's just the basics.

When you look at median income for this region, it's about $55,000 a year.

Folks are struggling.

So, if we had more, I think, awareness around that, and people could feel less shame-?

Like, you're workin' your butt off and it still feels like it's not enough?

It's not a problem with a person; it's a problem with our system.

- One of the things that I learned about when I went to college and started sitting on committees (Kimberly chuckles) was that the lifeblood is the ability to raise money, right?

- Yep.

- And so, look in the crystal ball for us a little bit.

- Sure.

- And, tell us what you see coming around the corner as it pertains to the state of philanthropy.

- My goodness!

- Because it's so important, and so amazing, and so vital- - Mm hm.

- that people give out of their hearts, that grants and government agencies make it a priority to fund people that are on the ground understanding the areas and doing the work.

Where are we going with that?

- So, I think we're really fortunate here in the Inland region, where I've talked to my colleagues across the country and things are not looking great.

- Right.

- But, we have-- The municipalities, the county governments, our state representatives in this region understand how important it is to make that funding available.

Where we're going?

I think the future for us is collaboration.

- Sure.

- United Way kind of pioneered that idea of bringing people together around a common cause.

And, I think we've kind of drifted away from that for a little while.

And, I'm so happy to see that it's kind of starting to come back towards that united effort.

How can we come together for a common cause for the common good?

It's really a time for, not just philanthropy, but the agencies that are doing that on-the-ground work to come together and say, "Hey, how can we do this together?

"How can we be successful together and make sure our community wins in the end?"

- So, connected to that, - Yeah.

- let's say 10 years from now, you're still the head of the, you know, (Kimberly chuckles) Inland SoCal United Way, or on the board.

You're the, - Okay.

- you know, the CEO emerita!

- We're dreaming!

Okay!

- You know?

If you have your druthers-?

- Mm hm?

- At that point, what would you have accomplished?

- Oh.

So-?

(sighs) Wow.

That's such a good question!

I would love to see this agency continue to meet the needs that the community expresses for it.

That we have a fully trained, fully resourced staff that lives comfortably enough so that they're not experiencing the same stresses and struggles that our callers are experiencing.

And, they can compassionately care for the community in the ways that really matter.

I'd love to see our community rally behind the folks that we're supporting, and to include those who have been historically left behind.

And part of their, not just volunteer work, but celebrations as well, that we really become an interconnected community that doesn't leave anybody behind.

- So, the very best of Inland SoCal United Way.

Kimberly Starrs, thank you so much for being with us today.

- Thank you for having me.

- Well, we've done it again!

We are looking to give you great information about wonderful folks and wonderful organizations that are helping the Inland Empire.

And, we've done it again with this organization.

Make sure you let everyone know that they can watch this episode and other ones on YouTube.

And, keep watching us as we seek to unveil all of the great work going on in the Inland Empire for the benefit of all of us.

And, we'll do it one conversation at a time.

Until then, I'm Joe Richardson.

Thanks for comin', and we'll see you soon.

[uplifting music and vocals] ♪ ♪ ♪ [softer music and vocals] ♪ ♪ ♪ [music fades]