United Way of Elgin begins the 2012 Community Investment Process
Wednesday January 18th, 2012
With the 2011-12 campaign winding down, the United Way of Elgin is shifting gears and moving into the community investment process – the time when decisions are made about where United Way will invest its financial resources.
Volunteer-driven councils
Volunteers are vital to the United Way of Elgin’s funding decisions. These decisions aren’t just made by United Way staff and board members. There are many community volunteers who offer their time and talent to ensure that donors get the best possible return on their investment.
Fifty-five volunteers, including some partner agency executives, serve on one of three councils that are organized around United Way’s priorities of need in the Elgin community. The councils are:
- Education, focusing on helping children enter school ready to learn and to succeed in school and in life
- Income, strengthening families – providing for basic needs in times of crisis and helping individuals reach financial stability
- Health, ensuring all people have access to affordable, quality medical care including mental health and dental care and fostering a healthy life style, free of violence and neglect
With agency executives prohibited from participating in the investment process, a total of thirty-six volunteers will serve on one of the councils’ review teams.
Investment process
The investment process, which began in November, is open to all health and human service organizations serving our area. In a highly competitive environment, 40 letters of intent were submitted. Of those, 32 programs were approved to complete a full application. The funding requests total $942,280.
Under the guidance of Betsy Cappas, Education council chair, Mary Martini and Sue Ehlers Income council chair and co-chair, and Ed Hunter and Tina Link, chair and co-chair of the Health council, the volunteers have the rigorous task of evaluating the written applications. Agency leaders also have the opportunity to sit down with council volunteers to answer questions that were not covered in the application.
Program evaluation
The key criteria for investment decisions include:
- alignment with the strategies set by the Vision Council and the community
- program quality
- capacity to deliver results
- appropriate performance measures and improvement plan
- a reasonable budget with diversified funding
After careful deliberations each council will present its funding recommendations to the Vision Council, which oversees the impact councils’ work and reports directly to the United Way Board of Directors. The United Way Board of Directors has the final vote on recommendations.
The community goals and strategic partnerships combine to create a cohesive investment plan for the Elgin area, says Lynne Bosley, United Way of Elgin President. “The residents of our community entrust us with their dollars, and we owe it to them to invest those dollars for the maximum positive impact. Our partners will be accountable for results, and United Way will be accountable to donors. It’s that simple. We understand that United Way dollars alone will not move the needle on the community’s most pressing issues. We hope our investment plan will serve as a catalyst for investment by other funders.”
