Seven United Ways across Atlantic Canada have merged.

The charities became the United Way Maritimes on July 1.

Sara Napier, the interim CEO, said the amalgamation will streamline workflow and help branches share data.

“We know that we can limit duplication and we can, therefore, maximize our staff time and effort to do more with community,” she said.

The local branches will keep their names, and any funds raised locally will be spent locally, she said. But there’s now a joint marketing and human resources team with United Way Maritimes, just two examples of changes since the merger.

All seven branches are keeping their workers, she said.

“A lot of people who were previously pulled in maybe ten different directions are now able to focus on the unique work that they can do in their community while there’s a team of great people taking care of some of those pieces of work that we all need to do,” said Napier.

Because they are one organization, Napier said that lets the teams learn from each other and take program or fundraising ideas that worked in some places and implement them in others.

Lots of donors have campaigns that work with the various branches, as well, and having one larger United Way group would streamline work for those campaigns, she said.

Two United Way branches, United Way Greater Moncton and Southeastern New Brunswick (United Way GMSENB), along with United Way Cape Breton, chose not to join the merger.

RELATED: United Way GMSENB remains independent

“They just made the decision that unification was not the right one for their organization at this time. However, our relationships are really strong, and we’re still collaborating regardless of legal structure,” she said.

She said the reason they get up every day and do the work they do is to address problems in the community.

“If we can do that more effectively, then that’s good news for United Way and it’s good news for all the communities that we serve.”