United Way to Target Health, Education and Income

Alma Powell said the education statistics in the United Way's report illustrate a "crisis for our country." According to the report, 74 percent of high school students graduate in four years.

"We are losing our standing in the world as other nations emerge, and their emphasis on education is so much stronger," she said.

She said it is crucial for nonprofit groups, philanthropies and businesses to pool their resources and work together.

Brenda Suits, a senior vice president at Bank of America, one of the United Way's biggest corporate partners, said the organization's new mission is "definitely on the mark."

But the United Way might have a difficult time galvanizing the nonprofit sector, let alone its affiliates. Although the national organization sets the agenda for its 1,300 affiliates, it does not have the power to dictate that local organizations award grants only in the areas of education, income and health.

It is hard to gauge the reaction of local United Way leaders, many of whom will learn of the national initiative today. But the affiliates are historically independent, and many have deep relationships with donors and nonprofit groups in their communities. "All they have is a persuasive leverage, and I'm not sure that's going to be good enough to move a lot of these entrenched local United Ways," said Pablo S. Eisenberg, a senior fellow at Georgetown University.

The United Way of the National Capital Area aligns much of its giving around education, income and health, said Charles W. Anderson, president and chief executive.

"This is our future, and this is the future of the movement," he said.

Gallagher said the United Way is establishing interim benchmarks to measure progress toward its 10-year goals. "The thing that is either really stupid or really courageous is we're going to hold ourselves accountable to these national metrics," he said.

Donors increasingly want nonprofit groups to measure whether they are achieving their missions, Allen S. Grossman, a Harvard professor, said. "If this works, this can help transform the way a lot of other people give away their money."