- February 7, 2025
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In one week, Courtney Edgcomb became the community impact vice president with United Way of Volusia-Flagler Counties and the mother to three boys.
The native Floridian, originally from Naples, adopted three boys, ages 8, 10 and 11, with her husband and had the children at the couple's home in May. Within that same seven day period, Edgcomb began her new role at United Way. By September, the adoption was finalized and Edgcomb was already making future plans with her United Way team.
"I'm just trying to balance how to have kids for the first time along with a role that's supervisory," Edgcomb said, adding that, "it's been an awesome six months."
Edgcomb moved to central Florida in 2009 and in 2012 graduated Stetson University, where she also met her husband, with a Bachelor's in outreach management before she joined United Way in a development position in 2013. She began to work her way through the organization's community impact department and, when an opportunity arose to take over development, she took stepped into a new leadership role.
The role includes responsibilities related to marketing, volunteering, fundraising and fund distribution along with a team of five people.
As for the future, she hopes to see more awareness of United Way grow in the community and for people to better understand how the organization works in addition to its purpose.
"I want to see us raise some more money to support some new programs," Edgcomb said. "Underneath our community impact model we're not only funding $1.4 million for the programs, but we're finding more ways to get collaborative with the dollars that donors give to us."
Edgcomb said one challenge is the competition from other non-profits in the area. However, she credits her team for being able to reach businesses in the area along with the community impact model she has been using to educate more people about United Way.
One additional goal for Edgcomb has been to be more innovative with funding but also get ahead of problems instead of only reacting to them. She said there has been a sense of excitement and motivation from her team.
"I love my team. I'd have to say the people I'm working with are really brilliant, just smart people and very hard working, and they care a lot about the cause too," Edgcomb said. "For me, being able to see other people get excited about it is probably the most rewarding thing."
Currently, Edgcomb and her team are in the middle of campaigns, which means time spent with different businesses, meeting people within the community and participating in economic briefings to stay up to date on what is happening within the region.
In the midst of her responsibilities at work, Edgcomb has been settling in to her still new role as a mother to three boys. Edgcomb noted that she and her husband had always felt called to adopt and had finally started going through the adoption process last year. That desire became reality when they were matched with three boys from south Florida.
Recently, she had the opportunity to mix work with home life when a volunteer project came up on the west side of the county. When her three children heard about it they told her they wanted to go. It became a family service day at a foster home and a way to mix family time with giving back to the community.
"It's just a balancing act," Edgcomb said. "But you do it with anything. It's just adding one more ball to the juggling routine."
