United Way, with less to give away, to more closely examine requests

By MATTHEW UMSTEAD
April 17, 2009
matthewu@herald-mail.com

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — The United Way of the Eastern Panhandle has about $120,000 less to distribute in the coming fiscal year than it did last year, and what requests are met will be part of an “investment strategy” leaders hope will yield bigger returns for the community, executive director Jan Callen said this week.

For the 2009-10 fiscal year, United Way raised about $1.3 million, about $100,000 shy of its goal, officials said this week.

Federal employees accounted for about 34 percent of the money raised, and 64 percent of the donations were collected in the workplace, Callen said.

More than half of the money raised for the coming year, which begins July 1, was from “restricted donations,” leaving the United Way’s board of directors with $480,849 to award through a grant process in its second year, Callen said.

“We want to ensure that we invest donor dollars in programs that have the greatest impact and can make measurable changes in our community,” Ken Barton, president of the United Way board of directors, said in a news release. “We want to make the best use of every donation.”

The United Way is expected to announce its funding decisions June 19 at a recognition breakfast and annual meeting at the Holiday Inn in Martinsburg, Callen said.

The organization’s board received requests totaling about $1.1 million, Callen said.

The distribution of funds to support “safety net” agencies, such as the American Red Cross and The Salvation Army, has not changed. But Callen said the United Way is more closely examining proposals to determine the amount of “return on the investment.”

The organization is abandoning a simple distribution model that “sprinkled” funding among a number of organizations. It now expects proposals that address substantive community needs and eventually open doors to additional revenue sources, Callen said.

The Mission of Mercy project, a free two-day dental clinic held last summer, is a good example of how financial support was generated for a targeted need, and the United Way did not have to pull money from its campaign, Callen said.

Aside from safety net services, strategies that meet the United Way's goals and target issues to improve the education, income and health of Eastern Panhandle residents will be carefully considered by the United Way for investment, Callen said.