MARCH 24, 2011
UWKY News & Notes

Give.Advocate.Volunteer.
This Week:
The Common Good Forecaster: Exploring the impact of education
Nonprofit compensation: How much is too much?
Calling all procrastinators...Volunteer Tax Services still available!
Ordering campaign supplies? The Collaborative Campaign Store is open.
Upcoming Events around Kentucky

The Common Good Forecaster: Exploring the impact of education 


Education benefits all of us.  More education leads to better jobs and higher incomes.  But education is about more than jobs and wages.  Educational attainment is also linked to health, life expectancy, voter turnout, incarceration, self-worth, and prospects for one's own children.  Learn more.

United Way and the American Human Development Project teamed up back in 2009 to create an interactive tool called the Common Good Forecaster to show how things might change in your community if educational outcomes were better.  The tool has just been updated with new and expanded data to give the most accurate estimates of the effect of educational attainment on local communities down to the county level. 

Here's an example--if every adult in Kentucky were to increase their level of education by one factor (i.e., if all high school grads were to have some college experience), our state would be home to 90,126 fewer obese adults.  Fewer obese adults means less strain on the health care system.  Combine that with the fact that an estimated 175,000 fewer Kentuckians would live in poverty, and you begin to see how educational attainment can affect everything, including our state's beleaguered medicaid budget. 

Click here to learn more and see how United Way's focus on education can make your community a better place to live.

Nonprofit compensation: How much is too much?  


The National Council of Nonprofits recently addressed a question every nonprofit must deal with at some point - "What level of compensation is excessive?"  Beyond just public perception, there are legal concerns at stake.  However, that doesn't mean that nonprofit salaries and benefits should be substandard.  A better question for board members to ask is "What compensation levels will help our organization build its capacity by hiring and retaining terrific staff?"

The article covers what the IRS requires (and what it doesn't), and how to protect not only the organization, but also its board members from sanctions if compensation is found to be unreasonable.  Links to best practices and sample policies are available.  Read more.

IN ADDITION: United Way Worldwide (UWW) has set mandatory executive compensation guidelines for local United Ways.  Those guidelines, found in UWW Membership Requirement C, help to establish the IRS-required "rebuttable presumption of reasonableness".  They also help create a documented compensation program that can attract and retain qualified executives, while protecting the United Way brand from "headline risks".  Read more.

Calling all procrastinators...Volunteer Tax Services still available!

 

Back in January, we reported that many United Ways across Kentucky support volunteer income tax assistance (VITA) programs in their communities.  For most areas, free filing services for those earning less than $49,000/year are still available, saving lower-income individuals and families the cost of paid tax preparer fees.  Click the following links to learn more about United Way's VITA efforts in your area: If you don't see your area listed above, contact your local United Way for more information on available services.  If you earn less than $57,000 per year, you may be eligible to file your federal and state taxes online free at the United Way-sponsored website, myfreetaxes.com.

 

Ordering campaign supplies? The Collaborative Campaign Store is open.

Deadline to Order April 15

 

The Collaborative Campaign Store is a once-a-year opportunity for United Ways to purchase campaign products together in bulk for lower prices. All the orders placed at www.CollaborativeOrders.com between March 21 and April 15 are printed at the same time for efficiency, then drop shipped directly to each United Way by June 7. To accommodate various fiscal budgets, participating United Ways can choose whether they would like to have a June 15 or July 1 invoice.

Available products include: Apparel (T-shirts, sweatshirts and caps, etc.); Printed Paper & Vinyl Products (posters, pocket folders and window clings, etc.); Promotional Products (mugs, pens, drawstring backpacks, tote bags, etc.).  Many products can be customized with local information or completely customized for an additional fee.  Most of the paper products are union printed and some of the T-shirts and promotional products are made in the USA.  All materials are designed in keeping with the marketing focus and branding standards of United Way Worldwide.

For more information or to place orders, visit www.CollaborativeOrders.com.  

The Collaborative online store and printing is a service of Tailored Printing, Inc., in Springfield, Illinois.


Upcoming Events around Kentucky 

 

United Way of Murray-Calloway County is preparing for their upcoming annual LIVE UNITED Duathlon!  Get your teams training and ready--the Run-Bike-Run happens Saturday, May 14 at Murray High School. Click here for a registration form, or view the course sections: 2-mile run, 20-mile bike, 2-mile run.  The event begins 8 a.m.