New focus at Capital Area United Way causes staff shakeups

Three staff members of the Capital Area United Way—including Senior Vice President of Community Investment Michelle Robinson—have resigned from the organization just three weeks after another key staff member, Vice President of Communications Matt Stefan, stepped down from the position he had held since early this year. According to CAUW board member Jeff Wright, a communications executive who spoke on behalf of the organization, Stefan’s departure is unrelated to the exit of the other three. As for Robinson and the two departing members of the staff who worked under her, Wright tells Daily Report their resignations are a result of the challenges the organization is facing as it moves toward a new funding model that focuses dollars on nonprofits that are having a greater “community impact” on the root causes of problems. “We used to provide money to nonprofits directly in need,” Wright says. “Now we’re moving toward putting the money toward preventing problems. … This has been very tumultuous because some of those agencies saw this as a threat to their funding stream.” It has also been stressful for CAUW staffers. “This has caused a lot of burnout, and we’ve seen an exodus of some people over time,” he says. To help staff deal with the challenges, the organization has brought in two Lafayette-based consultants to work with CAUW Executive Director Karen Profita, the senior staff and the board “to oversee the process we’re going through and to recommend how we are providing the structure, leadership and process that can help make the job easier and mitigate … some of the issues we’ve been facing,” Wright says. —Stephanie Riegel