ALLENTOWN, Pa. — United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley and the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute will merge into a single nonprofit, the groups’ leadership announced Thursday.
The move cements a sustainable future for the institute, a research organization aimed at criminal justice reform, officials said
Founded in 2020, LVJI is best known for its reports on topics such as parking enforcement patterns, mental health needs in schools and the effects of marijuana criminalization on the Lehigh Valley’s courts.
United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley, meanwhile, focuses its efforts on education, healthy aging and community stability projects.
Once the merger is complete, LVJI’s research operations essentially will become a United Way program.
Institute Associate Vice President Victoria Wrigley will head the program and become a vice president at United Way.
United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley will hire LVJI’s three-person research staff, while Lehigh Valley Justice Institute Executive Director Joe Welsh joins United Way’s board of directors.
Welsh also will serve as a consultant as the merger moves forward. Once the process is complete, he will stay on as a part-time outreach and government relations consultant.
'Serve our community so much more'
“We are so excited about the research capabilities and the opportunity to expand that effort,” United Way of the Greater Lehigh Valley Chief Executive Officer Marci Lesko said in a video message.
“This merger is an opportunity for two important organizations to come together to serve our community so much more than we ever have before.”
“There's so much synergy in our analytical capabilities teamed with the great service work that United Way does — that also produces data.”Lehigh Valley Justice Institute Executive Director Joe Welsh
By absorbing the institute, United Way gets an in-house research team.
In return, LVJI gets the financial stability of a fundraising powerhouse that brought in more than $28 million in the fiscal year ending in 2023.
Because United Way already has a full complement of administrative staff, LVJI’s is freed from the administrative work of running a nonprofit, leading to more efficient operations.
“We were trying to think, how do we make very stable finances for the future?" Welsh said. "And the idea that that was discussed was about an affiliation with United Way.
“There's so much synergy in our analytical capabilities teamed with the great service work that United Way does — that also produces data.”
'We want to provide solutions'
Along with the financial benefits, LVJI has an inside track to shape a major nonprofit with the means to put their policy recommendations into action.
Researchers also will gain access to data United Way collects on the programs it runs.
“Once we study a problem from a very data driven perspective, we don't want to just say, ‘Oh, this is a big problem.' We want to provide solutions. Access to all of the innovative programming that United Way is doing gives us more options for those policy recommendations.”Lehigh Valley Justice Institute Executive Director Joe Welsh
“Once we study a problem from a very data driven perspective, we don't want to just say, ‘Oh, this is a big problem,’" Welsh said. "We want to provide solutions.
“Access to all of the innovative programming that United Way is doing gives us more options for those policy recommendations.”
The nonprofits have been hammering out the terms of a merger since October, officials said.
Under the terms, if United Way ever moves to end the research program, LVJI can reconstitute itself as an independent organization.
The net result of the merger, Welsh said, is that “the Lehigh Valley Justice Institute continues for hopefully forever, but certainly for the foreseeable future.”
