Chenango United Way needs record amount to meet community needs
CHENANGO COUNTY – In recent years, the Chenango United Way has changed they way they run a campaign. One of the most pronounced changes has been doing away with the tradition of setting an arbitrary goal and instead telling the community exactly what the needs of the community are.
This year, the CUW began its campaign estimating that the needs of the community would be approximately $700,000. They compiled the figure by examining the amount requested in recent years and compiling a figure. Last year the actual needs of the community totaled $665,000, this year the number is $921,737.
Executive Director of the CUW Elizabeth Monaco pointed out that the number did not indicate that there were more programs requesting funding, but that the programs need more help than in years past to continue serving the community.
The CUW has now received all of its funding requests for the 2008 year. According to Monaco, the applications are assigned to review panels, made up of CUW board members and community members who are not intimately involved with the United Way. Each member of the review panel scores the application based on a rubric supplied by the CUW, and then convenes to determine a final score.
“We decided to use this method because we thought it was a more objective process. Most of the points in the scores come from the outcomes the program can demonstrate, and there are no surprises, because all of the information, including the grading rubric is available on our web site,” Monaco said.
The group scores the submissions and leaves feedback on each one that states what areas are lacking. “It’s important for the organizations to see areas where they can improve for the following year. It strengthens the requests for the next year.”
After the campaign concludes on Dec. 31, the board meets and creates a spreadsheet, creating a cut-off score and deciding how much money to allocate to each agency.
“Generally, applications with a score of 65 or less don’t receive funding because they haven’t met the requirements,” said Monaco. The CUW Executive Director clarified by saying, “If we raised $921,737, we would definitely distribute it to all of the agencies, but because most years we don’t raise enough to meet all of the needs of the community, we have to have a cut off.” Organizations with higher scores receive a greater percentage of the amount they asked for. Decisions are announced in February, and allocations are made throughout the year.
Monaco said so far, the CUW has raised $145,961, which amounts to 20 percent of the original $700,000 the CUW had anticipated would be needed. “We’re doing really well, but we have a long way to go. We need to get as close as possible to the amount requested by the community,” Monaco said. She pointed out that this year the quality of the requests, and the success of the CUW new monitoring techniques involving mid-year visits, were both extremely successful, making the decisions this year even more difficult. “Other funding sources for these agencies are struggling to raise money this year as well, which means these agencies are relying on the United Way,” Monaco said. The United Way campaign will run through Dec. 31. For more information about the CUW visit the web at www.chenagouw.org or call the organization at 334-8815.
This year, the CUW began its campaign estimating that the needs of the community would be approximately $700,000. They compiled the figure by examining the amount requested in recent years and compiling a figure. Last year the actual needs of the community totaled $665,000, this year the number is $921,737.
Executive Director of the CUW Elizabeth Monaco pointed out that the number did not indicate that there were more programs requesting funding, but that the programs need more help than in years past to continue serving the community.
The CUW has now received all of its funding requests for the 2008 year. According to Monaco, the applications are assigned to review panels, made up of CUW board members and community members who are not intimately involved with the United Way. Each member of the review panel scores the application based on a rubric supplied by the CUW, and then convenes to determine a final score.
“We decided to use this method because we thought it was a more objective process. Most of the points in the scores come from the outcomes the program can demonstrate, and there are no surprises, because all of the information, including the grading rubric is available on our web site,” Monaco said.
The group scores the submissions and leaves feedback on each one that states what areas are lacking. “It’s important for the organizations to see areas where they can improve for the following year. It strengthens the requests for the next year.”
After the campaign concludes on Dec. 31, the board meets and creates a spreadsheet, creating a cut-off score and deciding how much money to allocate to each agency.
“Generally, applications with a score of 65 or less don’t receive funding because they haven’t met the requirements,” said Monaco. The CUW Executive Director clarified by saying, “If we raised $921,737, we would definitely distribute it to all of the agencies, but because most years we don’t raise enough to meet all of the needs of the community, we have to have a cut off.” Organizations with higher scores receive a greater percentage of the amount they asked for. Decisions are announced in February, and allocations are made throughout the year.
Monaco said so far, the CUW has raised $145,961, which amounts to 20 percent of the original $700,000 the CUW had anticipated would be needed. “We’re doing really well, but we have a long way to go. We need to get as close as possible to the amount requested by the community,” Monaco said. She pointed out that this year the quality of the requests, and the success of the CUW new monitoring techniques involving mid-year visits, were both extremely successful, making the decisions this year even more difficult. “Other funding sources for these agencies are struggling to raise money this year as well, which means these agencies are relying on the United Way,” Monaco said. The United Way campaign will run through Dec. 31. For more information about the CUW visit the web at www.chenagouw.org or call the organization at 334-8815.
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