With more competition for donor dollars, philanthropy is changing. So is the Capital Area United Way.
For the first time in its 90-year history, the agency is opening the funding process to any nonprofit organization in the 10-parish Capital Region that provides programs aligned to its 11 key strategies.
As Business Report details in a feature in its current issue, the CAUW is, more significantly, changing the way it allocates the millions of dollars it takes in each year from community donors and moving toward what is known in the nonprofit world as an impact model.
“In the past, people didn’t know how to help the community, so they looked to the United Way as their sole adviser,” CAUW board member Ralph Bender, CFO of Manship Media, tells Business Report. “Now, they’re looking at how they use their dollars and are leveraging them to make an impact and improve the community in which they live.”
The new way of doing business at CAUW is modeled after what has worked well at the United Way organizations in Greater Houston and Greenville, South Carolina. CAUW officials spent more than a year working on the overhaul and engaged the community in the process. They held dozens of meetings with more than 600 individuals—including donors, program providers and those who actually benefit from the services the CAUW’s partner agencies provide.
“We asked them what they need,” says Elena Brown, director of communications for the Capital Area United Way. “What do you see for your community for the future? What things do you want to improve?”
Until this year, the United Way followed a campaign and allocations model. It was simply a clearinghouse: It raised money and basically funded the same agencies and programs each year.
“It was very hard to get into the club,” says Bender of the old funding model. “And unless you did something wrong, it was also hard to get kicked out of it.”
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