United Way president and CEO Angela Williams enjoys discussing the history of the 130-plus-year organization, including a bit of information that would make for a great trivia question.

“When we were first founded 137 years ago, we were known as the Community Chest, and a lot of people don’t know this, but if you’ve ever played the game Monopoly, the Community Chest in Monopoly refers to United Way,” said Williams, who we caught up with at a recent United Way Western Regional Conference event in Las Vegas. She arrived at the event about 24 hours after visiting South Korea, whose United Way still uses the name Community Chest.

Williams took the helm at United Way in October 2021 after serving as president and CEO of Easter Seals and on active duty in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps. She presides over an organization with locations in 1,100 communities spanning 34 countries and territories, including 95 percent of the United States.

Williams hasn’t taken long to make an impact: United Way Worldwide is a member of the Power Forward Communities, a coalition committed to transforming the housing sector, saving homeowners and renters money, and helping our nation meet its climate goals. Last month, the coalition was awarded a $2 billion grant from the Environmental Protection Agency to help decarbonize American homes, focusing on low-income and disadvantaged communities.

United Way Worldwide has also recently received a $25 million donation from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott to support efforts to combat poverty, reduce educational inequality, and boost access to healthcare. Her efforts are among the reasons Nonprofit Times recently named Williams to its Power and Influence top 50 list for the second consecutive year.

United Way of King County sat down with Williams in Las Vegas for a Q&A about her tenure at the helm. Here is an excerpt from that interview. For the full interview, check out our Hourglass Podcast.

United Way of King County: How has your career stops—including serving as president and CEO of Easter Seals and on active duty in the U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate General’s Corps—led you to where you are now?

Angela Williams: I think the throughline for my professional career and my personal story comes through with this notion of service to others.

United Way of King County: In what ways, globally and nationally, do you see United Ways making the most impact?

Angela Williams: What I love about United Way is that we have four very broad areas of focus. Its health, economic mobility, youth opportunity, and community resilience. In any of those four areas, we can look at how our local United Ways are impacting communities. Our colleagues step up to meet needs as they are happening.

United Way of King County: How do you stay connected to all the leaders, partners, and stakeholders in an organization with 1,100 locations worldwide?

Angela Williams: For me, I count it as a blessing that we have 1,100 local United Ways that are led by 1,100 local leaders—that’s to start with. We have wonderful boards of directors that also do the work, and I have a great staff at United Way Worldwide.

My goal is to ensure tangible touchpoints with all of our partners, whether I am doing it personally or through my team at United Way Worldwide or our local leaders on the ground. We want to ensure that we can provide support, deliver clear messages, and let everyone know that we are a global organization that is hyperlocally focused.

United Way of King County: At United Way of King County, we are hyper-focused on addressing housing and food insecurity. To that end, we have launched the Our Neighbor Fund to target those concerns. As you travel across the country and across the world, do you see any issues you see most United Way organizations working on?

Angela Williams: I would say that homelessness and food insecurity are those issues, and the third would be youth opportunity—particularly around education. It looks differently in a lot of the communities—from Accra, Ghana, where they went to a school, cleaned out an old room, built bookshelves, brought in books, and started a literacy program.

In the United Kingdom, we partner with schools that get employees from corporations to come in and help mentor the youth and introduce them to this notion of STEM. And United Ways in the U.S. and abroad partner with the United Way Imagination Library.

 [United Ways embrace] this notion of how we ensure our younger generations have the tools they need and are equipped to grow up in a world that is fast-changing and chaotic, but they have the skills to be successful and lead as they become older adults.