Imagine where our neighbors would go for food and emergency utility payments if we did not have the Contact Center. Imagine where women and children in abusive circumstances would go if we did not have the Womens’/Children’s’ Center. Imagine what our seniors would do if they could not get to The Center (Senior Citizen Center) for a well-balanced lunch. Imagine what our neighbors would do if they were suddenly homeless. Imagine the chaos if those agencies had to close their doors due to the lack of funding!
Imagine the local support that would be needed from every single person if we needed to raise $2,112,994 for the United Way & Volunteer Services’ annual campaign!! That amount is the combined 2009 total budgets of our affiliated agencies. Makes our 2010 campaign goal of $460,000 seem quite insignificant, doesn’t it?
All of the agencies depend upon other resources plus our campaign to keep their doors open. A number of them apply for federal and state funding and then use the allocations received from United Way as required match funding. Transportation, Senior Nutrition and RSVP programs serving and involving seniors receive federal and state funding. Federal and state funding are also available for programs addressing abuse, hunger, utility payments, homelessness and other issues of crisis and needs.
Local fundraising also occurs. Hy-Vee promotes agency fundraising on weekends through their customers turning in a special coupon for the selected agency. Pizza Ranch helps agencies raise extra funds with their customers turning in special coupons on selected Monday evening meals. Bowl-A-Thons, raffles, dunk tanks, golf tournaments, dances, Bingo, special events – just to name a few – are planned, promoted and held to raise additional funds to help the agencies meet their program needs. Businesses and individuals are asked to donate items for special events or asked for monetary support for the individual agencies’ annual drives.
The United Way & Volunteer Services staff and Board of Directors know that this community is generous in supporting multiple requests. People that donated to this year’s campaign and have been donating for years have generously supported the work of the agencies and our organization. None of us would be operating if the campaigns had not been successful.
It takes all of the resource segments to make it happen - the Federal and State funding, the individual agency fundraisers and the United Way & Volunteer Services’ annual campaign. The most important question is: ARE THE AVAILABLE RESOURCES OFFERING THE BEST SERVICE POSSIBLE TO THOSE IN NEED?
Every year the United Way & Volunteer Services’ Allocations Committee reviews each agency that applies for funding. This group of United Way board members reviews each agency’s program services, their need for funding, their achieved goals and their long range goals, the number of people served, their efficiency, their compliance to their By-Laws and their accomplishment in meeting their mission. The Allocation Committee spends a great deal of time asking questions, listening to the answers and considering the needs.
After much deliberation, the price tag for the agencies to accomplish the tasks and an achievable goal for the next year’s campaign is decided. They take their recommendation to the full Board of Directors for consideration and approval. Is the recommendation $2,112,994? NO! The 2011 campaign goal will once again be PART of the income for the agencies. However, it is a vital resource that would be impossible for the agencies to recover without severely cutting their services. I do not want to imagine that happening to our neighbors nor to this community! Do you?