This is a history of the Health and Welfare Council of the National Capital Area (HWC) as the author experienced it as its Executive Director from its founding on June 13, 1957 to the time he resigned in 1972, just two years before the Council and the United Givers Fund were merged into the United Way of the National Capital Area in 1974 and HWC ceased to function as an independent organization.

During the period of 1957 to 1972, HWC was engaged in many major projects designed and executed to improve the health and welfare of the people of the Metropolitan Washington community. The author hopes this record will inform and inspire others to pursue similar goals in the United Way movement.

The United Givers Fund was formed in 1956, and partnered with HWC until the 1974 merger into the United Way of the National Capital Area. The core financial support for the HWC staff was provided by the United Givers Fund.

In perspective, the HWC 17-year experience is one segment of the larger community effort over the many years to meet community health and welfare needs in the Washington area. In Washington, as in other communities across America, there had been a federated fund-raising organization and a community planning council, known by different names, but I can find no history of the dates these older organizations were founded in the Washington area.

When HWC was formed in 1957, there was a Council in Washington D.C., called United Community Services. There were also Community Chests and Councils in each of the five neighboring jurisdictions, in Montgomery and Prince George's counties in Maryland, and in Arlington County, Fairfax County, and the city of Alexandria in Virginia. Each of these community chests raised funds in their community and made allocations to their member agencies, but to facilitate fundraising from Federal employees and from employees in companies serving the entire Metropolitan region, a Community Chest Federation was organized to guide the campaigns.

There was a significant difference from other community councils across the country in the functioning of the Health and Welfare Council of the National Capital Area regarding allocations to member agencies. The allocations to agencies were made by the planning Council (HWC), rather than by the fund-raising organization (the United Givers Fund). A similar arrangement applied in only two other communities in the U.S., in Boston and in Louisville, Kentucky, where the Council made the allocations. In all other communities, the fund-raising organization made the allocations.

HWC was a member organization of the national agency, United Community Funds and Councils of America, the predecessor of United Way Worldwide. HWC was also a member of the National Social Welfare Assembly.

HWC was also a member of the Million and Over Club, an informal association of the Executives of Community Welfare Councils in metropolitan areas with a population of a million and over to share experiences.