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Established 1922 — the federated era
Founding: United Way of Allen County was established in 1922. It belongs to the movement that, across industrial America, replaced agency-by-agency begging with one federated campaign — the Community Chest model: a single annual drive, a citizen allocation process, and member agencies funded from the common pool. The national name lineage ran Community Chest to United Fund (1950s) to United Way (1970s); the Fort Wayne body's own materials carry the 1922 establishment without publishing the dated local name changes, and this entry does not invent them — it notes only that by 1981 Big Brothers/Big Sisters was "accepted as a member agency of the United Way of Allen County," the name in local use by then (see the Big Brothers Big Sisters entry).
Role and scale: The federated fund became the plumbing of Fort Wayne charity for a century: Big Sisters was founded in 1975 "with the help of the United Way," and the member-agency list is a cross-section of this section. Its own current framing sorts the work into education, income, health and basic needs. Federal filings give the modern scale: revenue of 3,258,264 dollars in the fiscal year ending June 2023, and 3,160,858 dollars in the year ending 30 June 2025, with net assets of about 4 million dollars, 13 employees and 1,408 volunteers in the 2024 filing — a small staff moving a community-wide allocation, which is precisely the federated model's design. The Community Foundation, founded the same year, is the era's other pillar and lives in the Wealth section (cross-reference there).
Sources:
- United Way of Allen County — "established in 1922" (organizational boilerplate; the 2014 chief-executive announcement); audited financial statements, FY2023.
- IRS Form 990 summaries (Intellispect / ProPublica-line data) — FY2023 revenue 3,258,264 dollars; FY2025 revenue 3,160,858 dollars; net assets, staff and volunteer counts.
- Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northeast Indiana, organizational history — the 1975 Big Sisters founding with United Way help; 1981 member-agency acceptance.