The Capital Area United Way slightly exceeded its fall fundraising goal of $9.3 million, and surpassed contributions from the fall 2013 campaign by 3%. Though the agency will not release final numbers on the fall 2014 campaign until next month, CEO Darrin Goss says it’s not too soon to declare the workforce campaign a success.
“We did well,” Goss says. “2014 was up from 2013, which was up from 2012 so we’re continuing to move in the right direction.”
An equally significant number for the local agency is that its overhead costs, which constitutes a percentage of its operating budget, are continuing to decrease. CAUW’s overhead in fiscal year 2014-2015 will drop to below 21% from 23% in FY 2013-2014. While that’s still significantly higher than the national benchmark of 15%, Goss is confident the agency will be able to reduce its overhead to between 10% and 13% within the next three years.
“Nationally, best practices is around 15%,” he says. “We’d like to be in that range or below.”
The United Way has been criticized nationally for its high overhead rate. Goss says the local agency has been working to lower its overhead by being more mindful of expenses, trying to better contain costs and also by raising more money. Though increasing contributions to the agency does not, as a practical matter, reduce overhead, it lowers the percentage of overhead on paper.
“We want to manage the process and do it responsibly,” says Ralph Bender, CAUW incoming board chairman. “But we’re not going to cut ourselves to the point that we can no longer operate efficiently. We still need administration to help us raise money.”
With changes in workplace demographics, namely the retirement of baby boomers and the increase in the number of millennials, CAUW has been changing the strategy of its workforce campaign in an effort to better engage younger workers and make the agency more relevant.
To that end, the agency is initiating programs to help corporate partners meet their philanthropic goals and connect to their employees. At Shell Geismar, for instance, CAUW has helped a group of young engineers create a reading program for Ascension Parish schoolchildren. At Entergy River Bend in West Feliciana, CAUW helped establish a Dolly Parton Imagination Library program, which donates books to students.
“It’s a way for us to leverage the skills we have and create opportunities for companies to connect their employees to the community,” Goss says.
—Stephanie Riegel
