Community volunteers – who better to help direct where the donor dollars go in our community than community members? United Way has long prided itself on recruiting quality volunteers to help with both the fundraising and allocations processes. This volunteer-led effort works because of the dedication and passion of individuals from throughout our community who truly care about improving the lives of their neighbors in need.
“The allocations process works for a number of reasons,” says Bill Cooper of Nationwide, who serves as co-chair of the Community Impact Council and has participated as a United Way volunteer for the past four years. “To put it in simple terms: knowledge, accountability and stewardship are why it works.”
Here’s a look at how the community impact/allocations process unfolds each year.
Members of the community are recruited to serve a 3-year-term as a volunteer on an impact team. Currently, 36 volunteers are serving on one of five impact teams. These volunteers represent demographics similar to Delaware County’s in areas of geographic location, business experience, vocation, race, age, etc.
All volunteers are required to attend a training session prior to reviewing any funding applications and they must fully disclose any potential conflicts of interest.
Volunteers receive approximately half a dozen funding proposals to read, review and score. They attend site visits of the agencies seeking funding; this is similar to an interview process where volunteers gain additional insight and understanding of the agency requesting funding. Twenty-two agency site visits were conducted in March.
The five impact teams convene and discuss, debate, and reach consensus on the funding recommendations.
Two members from each of the five impact teams, comprising the Community Impact Council (CIC), meet to reconcile the five teams’ funding recommendations with the allocable dollars – the money that’s been pledged throughout the past months during campaign season.
The CIC co-chairs present the funding recommendations to the United Way’s Board of Directors for review and approval. By early May, all funding applicants are notified.
“The level of commitment and professionalism of the volunteers has improved consistently over the past four years,” Cooper says. “There is an even greater sense of accountability with an orientation toward being true stewards of the donations that are being allocated.” Volunteers themselves are usually donors, thus they have a vested interest.
This year, approximately 385 total volunteer hours — a conservative estimate — were expended by these volunteers to prepare, review and participate in the community impact process.
Funding requests were received from 27 nonprofit agencies seeking nearly $2.9 million.
At the end of the allocations process in May, all volunteers are surveyed to gather feedback to help United Way continually improve the community impact process.
