When he graduated from Boston College 30 years ago, Michael K. Durkin, freshly steeped in Jesuit principles of social justice, was troubled by the sight of people standing in food lines and sleeping on the streets. Like many young idealists, he was drawn to community service. But work in a classroom or social service agency held little appeal.
"I didn't have the temperament or patience to be a teacher or police officer or social worker," said Durkin, 52. "The important issues to me were poverty and homelessness, and I wanted to affect people's lives at a broader, communitywide scale."
So he took a job with a national nonprofit group that would come to define his career: the United Way, which enrolled him in a management training program designed to groom its future leaders. In Durkin's case, it did exactly that.
Three decades later, after climbing the ranks of local United Way chapters across the country, Durkin is returning to New England next month to be chief executive of the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, based in Boston. The Hub chapter serves about 90 cities and towns, and last year raised nearly $50 million.
His arrival comes at a time when the organization faces critical challenges, particularly in convincing increasingly sophisticated donors that it should remain a destination for their philanthropic dollars.
"Historically, donors gave to the United Way because they knew good things were going to happen with their money, and I still believe that continues to be a big driver of individual donations," said Durkin, who has run the charity's Denver chapter since 1994. "But a ton of them aren't giving to the United Way, and why not? It's not antipathy toward the United Way, but wanting to have greater impact with their money."
To satisfy donors who want to see results, the United Way honed the focus of its charitable dollars, from spreading money among a wide variety of nonprofits to funding a narrower range of causes.
At the United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, the strategic mission is to make the region "the best place for children in the country" by funding early-childhood education, after-school programs, job training, and affordable housing. This "new goal-driven concept," in the words of Cathy E. Minehan, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston and head of the search committee that selected Durkin, means some longtime United Way beneficiaries lost their funding in recent years - a sting that, for many of them, lingers today.
"The decision the United Way made had the result of excluding organizations that serve some of the most underserved people in the Commonwealth, and I hope it reexamines that decision," said Karen Schwartzman, president of the board of directors of Deaf Inc., an Allston nonprofit that serves the deaf community and lost its United Way funding.
In Denver, where he is chief executive of the Mile High United Way, Durkin oversaw a similar winnowing. He focused the organization's efforts on three target areas - school readiness, youth success, and adult self-sufficiency - and worked with government agencies, public schools, businesses, foundations, and other nonprofits to achieve those goals.
"In my experience in the past with the United Way, it's really been its own little kingdom, but Mike has gone out of his way to partner with other organizations," said Michael Roque, director of the Denver Office of Strategic Partnerships, which brokers cooperative efforts between the city and nonprofits.
Despite the waning of the United Way's payroll-deduction campaigns, long the lifeblood of its fund-raising, and even though Denver, like Boston, lost several corporate headquarters in recent years, Durkin helped the Mile High United Way reach its largest-ever one-year fund-raising goal - $36 million. He also initiated a five-year plan to raise $250 million.
"Mike helped the Mile High United Way expand and become relevant in many ways other than workplace giving," said Charley Shimanski, president of the Colorado Nonprofit Association.
Several of Durkin's Colorado peers said he changed public perception of Denver's United Way from a charity that primarily raises money to one with wider ranging abilities. Among them: coordinating mentoring programs, developing affordable housing for families transitioning from shelters, and helping low-income residents establish savings accounts.
That experience, Minehan said, gave the Boston search committee confidence in Durkin's ability to lead the charity here.
"He's been there, he's seen transformation, he's seen the ability of more focused giving, and he's got deep roots in Massachusetts," said Minehan.
Durkin, who will be paid $265,000 a year in Boston, grew up in Syracuse, N.Y., and spent many years working in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, including for United Way chapters in Lowell and Portsmouth, N.H. He also has family connections to the region; his wife grew up in Melrose and his in-laws live in Danvers.
After graduating from Boston College with a degree in political science in 1977, Durkin was hired by the United Way, where his earliest positions were in Manchester, N.H., and Norfolk, Va. He then criss-crossed the country as he ascended the leadership ranks, landing in Denver 12 years ago.
Durkin has three children: a son who attends the University of Colorado, a daughter who is a freshman at Boston College, and a son with Down syndrome who is in the eighth grade. His wife, Ann Bersani, is director of the Denver Adult Down Syndrome Clinic.
Last week, Durkin flew to Boston to participate in the city's annual homeless census and to meet with the new chiefs of Catholic Charities of Boston and Federated Dorchester Neighborhood Houses. By working with organizations like these, he hopes to fulfill his personal and professional goals of helping those who can't help themselves.
While individual efforts and individual donations can make a difference, he added, solo efforts aren't enough.
"At the end of the day there are issues in a community that are too complex for individual organizations or individual solutions to be able to effect the change you want," said Durkin. "What the United Way can do, when we do our work effectively, is bring those pieces together."
Michael K. Durkin
Age: 52
Position: chief executive, United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley
Hometown: Syracuse, N.Y.
Education: Boston College, bachelor of arts, 1977
Previous employment: 30 years in management positions at United Way chapters, including in Lowell; Columbia, S.C.; Boulder, Colo.; Portsmouth, N.H.; Atlanta, and Denver.
Family: married with three children
Interests: cooking, college basketball
Sacha Pfeiffer can be reached at pfeiffer@globe.com.
