It’s allocation award time at United Way! This means that the grant process for agencies is wrapped up and decisions have been made on the funding amounts. That process is not a quick or easy one. Agencies begin working on applications in the fall and have them completed by December. In January, community members are recruited and trained to review these applications and make agency visits. These 7-9 community members, including a financial reviewer and individuals from different backgrounds and skill sets, set out in February to review each application that is submitted. At the end of each panel review day, the panel makes a recommendation for funding for each application. 

The past couple of years haven’t been easy so you might have heard about funding reductions last year. Why was funding reduced? The catalyst for the decision was a decrease in funding and increase in uncollectible pledges in 2020 due to the pandemic. However, the reason funding was reduced was because many agencies were unable to serve their clients, meaning they were unable to use program dollars that were awarded in the calendar year 2020 – we requested that those dollars be saved and used for programming in 2021. These decisions were determined by numbers agencies reported on their annual program reports. The program reports gave the service numbers for their organization by quarter for the previous year. The United Way Community Impact Panel (made up of fund distribution panelists and chaired by the Board VP of Fund Distribution) reviewed these reports and created a structured system to determine reductions based on client service numbers. When agencies were able to resume full programming, their funding was fully restored. In addition, United Way was able to provide over $150,000 of emergency funding to agencies through discretionary grants that enabled them to provide pandemic services, reopen safely, make up for unexpected loss of revenues or meet unexpected needs. 

So what should we be expecting in 2022? Unfortunately, we are still feeling the impact of uncollectible pledges from 2020 and have experienced other funding losses. With that in mind, most agencies’ requests were not fully funded. Panel members look at each agency independently and carefully to determine the amount of funding needed to meet the requests of their programming. Recommendations are made to improve operations and create strong applications, technical assistance is offered and agencies are provided other opportunities and training to help them become more efficient and effective. 

All funding decisions are fully transparent and will be released with our Annual Report next month. If you would like to help us make up the gap in funding, please consider making a donation at www.uwayac.org. For more information about the process or donating to United Way, please contact Naomi@uwayac.org.