Leadership at the Hyundai Motor Group Metaplant America in Bryan County presented two area United Way chapters with a check for $150,000 Wednesday.

The funds will go to the United Way of the Coastal Empire, which serves Bryan, Chatham, Effingham, Liberty and Long counties, as well as the United Way of Southeast Georgia, which serves Bulloch, Candler, Emanuel, Evans, Jenkins and Tattnall counties. This is HMGMA’s second consecutive year of giving to the organizations. The funding will support community programs, nonprofit partners and services that connect local families with essential resources.

“We recognize that both of these organizations are on the front lines of making our communities more resilient,” said Brent Stubbs, chief administrative officer of Hyundai Motorgroup Metaplant America. “And this is a way that we can give them funds to invest in the community and trust that they can make these resources really work for those most in need.”

Stubbs said HMGMA chose to work with United Way because of its reputation and established process for directing funding to vetted nonprofit organizations.

He said this donation is just one part of HMGMA’s broader strategy to invest in the surrounding communities that its employees, known as Metapros, call home.

“From day one, as impressive as this facility is, we want to be a part of the community, not just a new building out here in Ellabell,” Stubbs said. “So for us it's been finding things that really made this place special. And it's really the community.”

Carey Cassedy, president and CEO of United Way of Southeast Georgia, said HMGMA's $50,000 contribution to her chapter represents its largest corporate contribution to date.

Cassedy said the funding will help her chapter support partner organizations to continue serving families, particularly as area businesses face closures.

“This will be able to help us replace those funds from those businesses,” she said. “There's going to be a lot of need out there with people that will now be unemployed.”

Cassedy said the United Way’s goal is to help families go from surviving to thriving, and HMGMA’s donation will play a large role in doing just that for families across southeast Georgia.

Kimberly Waller, president and CEO of United Way of the Coastal Empire, said the contribution will help children and families across the organization's service areas.

She said HMGMA’s previous donation helped fund the chapter's 211 service, which enables families to navigate available assistance for food, housing, utility bills and health care. The funding also allows the United Way to support nonprofit partners.

The donation also will help United Way sustain funding for nonprofit partners delivering essential services throughout the region.

“We know that it takes more than just one nonprofit to solve the challenges in the region,” Waller said. “Being able to support that type of infrastructure is crucial.”

Waller described the relationship with HMGMA as a two-way partnership. When Tropical Storm Debby and Hurricane Matthew hit coastal Georgia, she said the United Way worked with the company to help ensure employees affected by storms could access needed resources.