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 | | Instructor Jeannie Murphy-Hamlin discusses marketing the Goodhue County Chemical Health Initiative with Coordinator, Julie Hatch. |
Who Gets the Money and Why?
All fall we have been out asking people to give to United Way of Goodhue, Wabasha & Pierce Counties and point out the 29 organizations that received funding from us last year. Those organizations are listed right on the back of our pledge form. Those in the audience always turn it over and look at the list when they learn of it, but no one asks why those organizations?
The investment of the funds you have donated is one of the most important things we do. We know it is money that you have worked hard for and we take that very seriously.Our staff and volunteer board members are continuously critiquing at our system for how to best invest that money.
United Way hosted a free SteppsUp event last week to help staff from some of those agencies better explain what it is they are trying to accomplish. As the instructor Jeannie Murphy Hamlin explained "When you are in the trenches you get so caught up in the to do lists that you often forget the why are we doing this list, and that is what people want to hear."
United Way is changing our process.
WHY are we changing?
This year in order for us to keep our staff small and enable those agencies who receive funding to better plan their budgets, our board made the decision to begin awarding three year grants.
What has the process for change been?
We began with organizations seeking Education Funding. We met with a group in Red Wing working on education, agency representatives and representatives from other United Ways. We set goals for United Way based on the needs of all of our service area and came up with two specific goals, to increase the opportunities
for pre-school attendance and to improve high school graduation rates. We looked at our application for funding and our volunteer training and made smart changes.
WHO will be eligible for funding?
Our purpose is to give funding only to those non-discriminatory agencies who are working toward United Way's education goals and meeting with success. We want to ensure that the money you entrust to us is making a difference.
WHEN will Health and Basic Needs change?
Next year we will work with a committee of specialists in Health services, We will pay close attention to what all of you have told us in the Goodhue and Wabasha County Health Surveys and research what the health needs are in Pierce County. We will include input from agencies who are currently receiving funding from us for health related services. Only then will we set three year goals for what changes need to be made to create healthy communities and begin the three year process for Health grants. The following year we expect to go through a similar process for Basic Needs grants.
This change take a lot of time and commitment from volunteers who care about their communities and want to make sure your donations are being invested wisely. United Way is people from our communities who care enough to give, to volunteer and to advocate for others.
Our office and staff are just the binding of the United Way's book. We keep the volumes of work accomplished together in an organized fashion, moving forward. But all of YOU are the United Way, the contents, the words and ideas that make up the story of this United Way.
Right now we are helping to edit, to ensure the story stays on track toward a happy ending for all. That is up to YOU, the true United Way.
Thanks for reading!
Maureen Nelson
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