Our 2025–2026 Annual Impact Report is Here!
We're excited to share our 2025–2026 Annual Impact Report, highlighting the incredible impact we made together across Johnson and Washington Counties. Explore the stories, milestones, and community outcomes made possible through your support, and don't miss a special message from our incoming Board Chair, Lynsey Yokum, reflecting on the year and the road ahead.
Rooted in Community. Ready for What's Next.
Serving this community has never felt like an obligation, it has always felt like a privilege. That is what drew me to the Board of United Way of Johnson and Washington Counties (UWJWC) in 2019, first through the Internal Operations Committee and later as interim Treasurer during one of the most challenging couple of years any of us can remember. It is what drives me today as I step into the role of Board Chair.
I want to begin by honoring the leadership of Len Devaisher, whose dedication and steady hand as Board Chair shaped this organization in meaningful ways. We are better for his service, and I am grateful to carry that momentum forward.
The work ahead is urgent. Our Community Needs Assessment paints a clear picture: more than a third of households in Johnson and Washington Counties are employed, striving, and still falling short of what it takes to make ends meet. Families are making impossible choices between childcare and rent, between health care and groceries. The need is real and so is our responsibility to meet it with the same rigor and compassion that has always defined this organization.
That responsibility showed up in the results last year. United Way of Johnson and Washington Counties raised $2 million and grew our balance sheet by 15% - not simply as measures of financial health, but as evidence of the trust our community continues to place in this work.
That trust is well-earned. Under the leadership of CEO Jennifer Banta and a team that leads with both heart and discipline, we are doing more than responding to need, we are building something durable. As Board Chair, I am excited to bring my background in organizational stewardship into fuller engagement across all four of our impact areas: Youth Opportunity, Healthy Community, Financial Security, and Community Resiliency. The data guides us. The community calls us. And the people around this table inspire me every day.
Our commitment is not seasonal. It does not waver with headlines or shift with uncertainty. It is steady, strategic, and deeply rooted in who we are and what this community deserves. I hope you will stay close to this work; give, volunteer, advocate, show up. There has never been a more important time.
Thank you for being part of this. I look forward to what we will build together.
With gratitude,
Lynsey Yokum
Board Chair, United Way of Johnson and Washington Counties