February 4th: A birthday party for America's children's health law - but the presents are for Kentucky's kids

Two years ago tomorrow, Congress delivered an unprecedented commitment to the health of America's children.  It was the day they enacted legislation to strengthen the Children's Health Insurance Program, known here in Kentucky as KCHIP.  But at this birthday party, it's Kentucky's kids who are getting the presents.

This year, the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services will highlight 11 states for their innovative approaches to CHIP enrollment, including Kentucky.  United Way of Kentucky helped make it happen.  Over the past two years, our collaboration with state government and our members has helped thousands of children in communities across the Commonwealth get much needed health coverage.  (Click here for more details.) 

In fact, since late 2008, as a result of the children's health law and our collaborative efforts, approximately 56,000 more Kentucky children can get the checkups and preventive care they need to stay healthy and see the doctor when they get sick or injured.

That means parents struggling to keep their families afloat during tough economic times can have confidence that a playground injury or flu outbreak won't drive the family deeper into debt.  It means Kentucky is using health dollars wisely - keeping kids healthy, rather than spending more on emergency room care for problems we should have prevented.  And it means Kentucky's federal tax dollars come back into our economy, to protect local health care jobs.

Join us in celebrating this important anniversary!  Let your representatives in the statehouse know that covering uninsured children should remain a top priority. And spread the word to parents in your community about KCHIP and Medicaid, so we can help even more uninsured children get the care they need to grow and thrive.
 

On the board?  Make your budget work meaningful...

If you sit on the board of a non-profit, part of your responsibility is to "protect the assets of the organization and provide proper financial oversight".  According to BoardSource.org, this includes "assisting in the development of the budget". 

For many organizations, the annual "approval of the budget" is the cornerstone of the board's financial oversight.  However, according to Jan Masaoka, Director and Editor in Chief of Blue Avocado, this approval is "frequently an empty ritual: one where board members peruse a budget that they are unsure is realistic or appropriate to the planned activities."

In her article, Meaningful Budget Work by the Board, Masaoka says that when presented with a complex budget, boards often respond by "looking for things that they can understand . . . usually a small expense item: 'Why is this travel budget so high?' 'Can this phone budget be reduced?'". She says, "In short, board members first nitpick, staff explain away concerns, and then the board rubberstamps the budget. The truth is that such approval isn't a meaningful act on the part of the board."

However, she offers an alternative in the form of 5 meaningful questions a board can ask about the budget to bring the full weight of their diverse perspectives to bear on the financial oversight of the organization:

1. Are there specific financial objectives we want for the next year?
For example, an organization may determine that it needs $75,000 in working capital to even out its cash flows over the year. The board may ask the staff to include $15,000 as "surplus" in the budget for each of the next several years to begin building that reserve.

There is frequently an assumption that every budget should be balanced; that is, that revenues and expenses would be the same for a given year. It's worth thinking through this question: do we want a balanced budget, a deficit of perhaps $50,000 (perhaps to spend/fulfill an unusual grant or to get through a temporary bad time), or a surplus of perhaps $10,000 (to save or to repay debt)?

Read her other suggestions at BlueAvocado.org.
 

United Way of Henderson County VITA program makes filing a little less "taxing" 

article by Victoria Grabner, drawn from the Henderson Gleaner, 2/2/2011

Derek Bessette arrived at the Henderson Housing Authority just after 4 p.m. on Tuesday.  He was early, but he had good reason to be.  That's because by 5:15 p.m. -- just 15 minutes after the office opened -- the organizers of the free tax filing service said they had reached their 25-person limit for the night.

Y'Londa Nall with the United Way of Henderson County said the busy opening night had seven tax preparers, all of whom are nationally certified by the IRS to provide assistance. "I don't care how early (we) get there, they will beat us there."

Jo Clark of Henderson was using the service for the first time on Tuesday. She said she heard about it that day, when she had gone to a tax preparation business located in Wal-Mart. But when she was quoted a price of $162, she balked.

"I'm on a fixed income and I couldn't afford it," the retired Whirlpool employee said. "I'm just glad that they have this service, because you do have a lot of people (who are) on a fixed income."

The Henderson VITA program is for low to middle-income individuals and families, and is a partnership of United Way of Henderson County, Green River Asset Building Coalition and the Internal Revenue Service.  It will be offered every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday through April 9.

Information on other VITA locations around the Commonwealth can be found in last week's News & Notes.
(Correction to the January 27 issue: Heart of Kentucky United Way is supporting VITA sites in four service areas, Lancaster in Garrard County, Stanford in Lincoln County, Harrodsburg in Mercer County and Danville in Boyle County.)
 

February birthday announcements!

The following is a list of friends of United Way of Kentucky celebrating birthdays this month. Join us in wishing them a happy and healthy year to come! 

February 6: Hollie Hopkins
February 11: Joe Wind
February 14: Joe Tolan