CHENANGO COUNTY – After receiving requests for more than $900,000 in funding from 32 area programs, the $488,876 raised during this year’s Chenango United Way Campaign is simply not enough to fund every request this year.
While the United Way has not yet released the list of programs that will be funded this year, Executive Director Elizabeth Monaco explained that the competition for United Way dollars is getting more difficult every year and without more money raised, deciding which programs to fund is going to become more and more difficult.
Last year, 31 area agencies requested a total of $668,000. Just one year later, 32 agencies requested $921,000. Program funding is based on a competitive application process. Each organization requesting money fills out a Request for Proposal form, which is scored by a group of trained volunteers using an objective scoring rubric. After working extensively with the agencies filing the forms, Monaco explained that the applications were getting better and better, making the decisions even more difficult.
Last year, the cut off score for funding was around a 70. Applications with scores lower than that were not funded. Those above were funded in a percentage equivalent to their scores. “Because of all the technical assistance we offered this year, the scores went up drastically. This year the passing grade was a 95,” Monaco explained. Although many applicants had drastically improved their scores, the CUW director explained there simply was not enough money to fund all of the requests.
“As a board, we have to decide are we going to fund everybody with the amount that we have, or are we going to give the funds to the top scorers who got between a 95 to 100,” Monaco explained. While the decision was difficult, the board decided it made more sense to give more funds to fewer agencies. No program was funded with more than 80 percent or less than 50 percent of what was requested. “If we’re going to measure the results that a program has, we have to be able to give the agencies something to work with,” Monaco said.
Since agencies scores are improving dramatically every year, Monaco explained next year other factors may also play a role in determining which agencies receive funding, although the board has not yet decided what those factors will be. “The Community Impact Committee is going to be reviewing the process and the policy guidelines to determine what to do for next year,” Monaco said.
The CUW will also look to revise the community needs assessment. Originally, a needs assessment study identified four primary areas of need in Chenango County; programs for the aging population, children and youth, poverty issues of housing and hunger and access to healthcare. While those areas are still the focus, Monaco explained the organization may revise the assessment to provide specific priorities under those areas.
In addition, the CUW hopes to increase their community impact by encouraging partnerships and collaborations between agencies. Monaco explained that in some areas there was likely to be duplication of services, and the CUW wants to encourage organizations to collaborate on such programs when possible.
While there will be 14 programs that will not receive funding from the CUW this year, Monaco explained that a large percentage of those organizations had met with her to review their requests and discuss ways they can improve for next year, however Monaco explained, the community has to raise more money in order for more programs to get the funding that they need.
A list of the programs that received funding is scheduled to be released sometime in March.