United Way was founded by caring people coming together to help those in need

During the gold rush of the late 1800s, families from all over the country packed everything they owned into horse-drawn carts and buggies, believing that Denver would have plenty of jobs to provide a stable life. In actuality too many people moved to Denver, creating growing homelessness and hunger.

It was common for men to visit one business after another, asking for employment. When they realized that all the jobs were taken in the community, many were forced to beg for help, as their families were homeless and starving. Most had used every thing they had to get to Denver.

The city's churches were also inundated with requests, causing the clergy to unite and approach local businesses, asking them join together to create a comprehensive response to the needs. Each business was asked to determine what it could contribute for the year. The money was placed in a central community fund, and used to address the most pressing issues in a thoughtful, long-term manner. The process soon replaced Denver's band-aid style approach.

As communities across the country heard of Denver's idea they developed their own, similar process. Every community called their community fund by a different name; at one point the Red Feather Fund was one of the more popular names.

The community fund in Mesa started as a response to the collapse of the cotton market in 1928. With so many people out of work, local community volunteers formed the Welfare League. Later it became known as the Mesa Community Fund.

In the early 1970s, many businesses began centralizing their payroll systems. While they wanted to support their local communities, they needed to standardize the process for collecting pledges and funds from employees around the country. Business leaders asked their local community funds to join in creating a national organization that could standardize employee and corporate giving. Thus United Way of America came into being. Local community groups joined the new organization, and played a role in governing how it would operate. The Mesa Community Fund voted to become Mesa United Way in 1981.

Unlike most charities, which are top-down chapters of a national organization, local United Ways are bottom up, creating centralized services whenever they benefit the group. Like the other 1,400 United Ways across the country, Mesa United Way has its own governing Board of Directors that sets policies, determines what community issues need to be addressed and how donations will be used to best serve the people who live in the community.