Volunteers distribute funds to area agency programs
June 1, 2010: If you asked 100 people how to spend money, you’d probably get 100 different answers. Opinions become even more divided when lives are affected by how you spend it.
That’s why the Tipp City Area United Way volunteer Board of Directors cautiously analyzed the best way to spend your community investment from donors of our last annual campaign. 15 Board of Directors which is comprised of local community volunteers spend countless hours on reviewing, and evaluating each agency. Volunteers weighed the impact made by each of the agency’s program(s) against the requests made by those organizations, along with the pool of funds available, and the overall needs of our community.
Tipp City Area United Way focuses their funding on 3 areas of impact, they are: EDUCATION: Helping children and youth achieve their potential through education, INCOME: Helping families become financially stable and independent, HEALTH: Improving people’s health. The pie chart above shows how our volunteer board of directors meticulously chose to distribute those funds.
The end result: money will go to organizations and programs to have a direct impact on the lives of thousands in the Tipp City, Monroe and Bethel Township areas.
“There was no rubber stamping of agency requests,” said Deborah Carr, Executive Director of the Tipp City Area United Way. “Every agency was evaluated on an individual basis by the board of directors; there was discussion on the value of each program’s impact.” “Extensive research, lively debate and much consideration was given before funding recommendations became final.”
The process began in January; area non-profit agencies received the application and submitted extensive information about their program and financial status. The board studied this material, interviewed agencies and shared information with each other.
Perhaps the most time intensive for our Board of Directors was the agency presentations, where organizations presented information about their programs and board members had the opportunity to ask additional questions. During the presentations, the Board looked at where the dollars were spent in the program, how is the program evaluated, and how many people are being served from our area, to name a few.
Volunteers also, assessed how agencies determine and meet the needs in the community through their programs. The volunteer Board of Directors agreed that the responsibility to make funding decisions in a way that ensured donor dollars were being used effectively to make the greatest impact was of their greatest concern.
With requests from our partner agencies coming in over the amount we had available to fund their programs, the inevitable shortfall meant both a literal and proverbial give-and-take occurred, requiring our board members to be as objective as possible. They had to be open-minded when examining issues and programs from different perspectives while contemplating service gaps and financial responsibilities.
“”We are excited with the results,” said Pastor Jim Valekis, Allocations Chair of Tipp City Area United Way. “Board members worked well together in determining how best to allocate the available funds in order to achieve the greatest impact in our community. All of our partner agencies play such a vital role in serving the various needs of our community. We only wish we had more funds to distribute to our agencies.”
Deborah Carr stated, “There is a shocking amount of need that is not visible to the average person in our community and we need to support them. They are our neighbors”
For more information on how you can support your community through the Tipp City Area United Way, please contact our office 669-FUND (3863) or send your donation to: Deborah Carr, Tipp City Area United Way, P. O. Box 95, Tipp City, OH 45371. You may also check out our website at www.tippcityauw.org.
