Milton Little- United Way of Greater Atlanta

Name: Milton Little- United Way of Greater Atlanta
Start: 2026-03-12T11:45:00-04:00
Location: Hilton Atlanta Marietta Hotel & Conference Center (500 Powder Springs St, Marietta, GA)

Schedule

Thu, 12 Mar, 2026 at 11:45 am

UTC-04:00

Location

Hilton Atlanta Marietta Hotel & Conference Center (500 Powder Springs St, Marietta, GA) | Marietta, GA

Milton J. Little, Jr. became the first African American president of United Way of Greater Atlanta in July 2007. Previously, he served as president of United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley.

Little joins a strong legacy of fundraising and collaborative leaders who bring together supportive partners in the for-profit, nonprofit, philanthropic, and government sectors to identify challenges facing individuals and families and offer solutions. He has helped raise more than a billion dollars for local community needs and priorities during his career.

In 2010, under Little’s leadership, nearly 17,000 Georgia families received $20.5 million in emergency financial assistance through the Georgia Fresh Start initiative, led by United Way of Greater Atlanta and the Georgia Department of Human Services. The funds were provided by the federal American Recovery and Reinvestment Act to provide relief on past due mortgage, rent, and/or utilities expenses during the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

Little has been at the forefront of shaping the role of United Way in responding to economic and natural disasters, from overseeing United Way’s efforts to stabilize North Georgia victims of record flooding in 2009 to creating the Hunger Crisis Response Fund to help feed families when SNAP benefits were disrupted in 2025.

In 2017, under Little’s leadership, United Way of Greater Atlanta launched the Child Well-Being Movement. The Child Well-Being Movement seeks to mobilize the 13-county Greater Atlanta region to improve the educational, health, and financial well-being of 250,000 children and young people, their communities, and caregivers. United Way of Greater Atlanta and a group of partners developed the nation’s only Child Well-Being Index that measures child well-being, down to the zip code, using fourteen different indicators.

In March of 2020, Little led the launch – in partnership with the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta – of the Greater Atlanta COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund. It raised more than $25 million and provided 320 nonprofits across Greater Atlanta with resources they need to help the most vulnerable populations affected by the Coronavirus pandemic.

Before joining United Way, Little served as chief operating officer and interim president and CEO of the National Urban League, the nation’s oldest and largest civil rights and social service community-based movement. Prior to joining the League, Little had a career in corporate philanthropy at AT&T and Lucent Technologies and served as vice president for Field Operations at MDRC, a non-partisan education and social policy research organization.

A member of Phi Beta Kappa, Little graduated magna cum laude from Morehouse College with a B.A. degree in sociology. He earned an M.A. degree in urban sociology and social policy from Columbia University.

Little is a graduate of Leadership Atlanta’s Class of 2010 and served as chairman of the board for the Center for Assessment and Policy Development, Southern Education Foundation, and vice chair of Ways to Work. He is also a member of several board and/or advisory councils, including but not limited to: Atlanta Speech School, Blueprints Atlanta Advisory Board, CareerRise ATL, The Carter Center, Central Atlanta Progress, GEEARS, Georgia’s Children's Cabinet, Junior League Atlanta, Learn4Life, MDRC, Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce, Partners for Home, and the Woodruff Arts Center Advisory Council. He has also previously served on United Way World Wide’s National Advisory Council and, in January 2020, was invited and appointed to serve on the Roundtable on Population Health Improvement for the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. He completed service on two Atlanta mayoral transition teams for Mayor Andre Dickens (2022) and Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms (2018).

Little’s leadership has earned him numerous accolades including, but not limited to, the Zora Neal Hurston Spirit of Zora Award from the Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Atlanta Legacy Leadership Award from the Black Child Development Institute (2024), the National Philanthropy Day Spirit of Collaboration Award (2020), Legacy of Hope Award from Africa’s Children’s Fund (2019), Atlanta Technical College Bridge Builder Award (2018), Alonzo F. and Norris B. Herndon Foundation Lifetime Achievement Award (2017), and Boy Scouts of America Whitney M. Young, Jr. Service Award (2005). He is also the recipient of the prestigious Centurion Award by Hope Atlanta (2011) and Paul Harris Fellow by Rotary International (2014). In 2012, he received Atlanta Civic League’s Founders Award, Atlanta Hawks Trailblazer Award, Morehouse College’s Bennie Award, and Turknett Leadership Group’s Connecting the Community Award.
He’s a lauded Atlantan and has been recognized on numerous occasions by “Who’s Who in Black Atlanta”, by Atlanta Business Chronicle as one of Atlanta’s Most Influential Atlantans (2009, 2014, 2018) and Most Admired CEO (2015, 2016, 2024), and by Atlanta Magazine as one of the 500 Most Powerful Leaders in Atlanta for the past six years in a row. Similarly, Georgia Trend Magazine has recognized him as a Notable Georgian (2017, 2018) and an Influential Georgian (2021, 2022, 2023, 2024). He is also a contributing writer for the Philanthropy Thought Leadership blog, a partnership between The Community Foundation, United Way of Greater Atlanta, and the Saporta Report.
“Milton has been a pillar of strength ever since his arrival in Atlanta,” says Kathy Colbenson, former CEO of local community partner CHRIS Kids. “Milton provides strong leadership and effectively leverages his ability to bring together various sectors to help those in need. He continues to be a blessing for this region and the families we serve.”

Little is a native New Yorker, happily married, and has two sons: Milton and Taylor, one bonus daughter, Blake, and three grandchildren: Joi, Miles, and Langston.