GUEST SHOT
‘We want to make a positive impact on those vulnerable individuals who need our support.’
United Way sheds light on funding allocation process.
My whole career has been in non-profit, working with vulnerable individuals such as transition house, young offenders and adults with disabilities and mental health concerns.
I chose to work for United Way Cape Breton because I wanted to be a stronger voice for the grass roots organizations, so they could do what they do best, without worrying about money.
Unfortunately, there is not enough money, yet.
Since starting at United Way Cape Breton six
years ago, we have worked to improve our funding allocations process. We recognized that the process needs to be objective, collaborative and comprehensive to make informed decisions regarding program funding. The process that existed was good, but couldn’t be quantified when explaining how the decisions were made. We need to have a balance between our hearts and our minds in our decision making. We critically question how we are spending United Way of Cape Breton money, how are we reporting our spending and how do we justify expenditures.
The process evaluates organizations’ financial statements and their budget to determine that it is financially sound. We have prioritized child poverty and as such evaluate whether a program is impacting children and families and whether they are income tested. We evaluate their catchment area, are they serving more than one community, how many individuals are they serving and their cost per participant. We want to know if they have a process for reporting outcomes and do they have the necessary tools to evaluate their programs, to be aware of what aspects are successful and what areas need improvement. We look at their governance structure and their collaborative partnerships.
These indicators (and a few more) are given a score. The funding allocation is based on this score, provided that we have enough money to fulfill the requests.
Over the past few years, we have made changes to our process in an effort to make it easier for the non-profit organizations to qualify for funding. The Department of Community Services has funded an additional staff to provide this needed support. We worked with a professor at Cape Breton University (CBU) to create a budget form as well as an explanation sheet to assist applicants. We have received support from other United Ways, feedback from organizations that have applied for funding in the past and from experts in the fields of evaluation and impact.
For this round of applications, we held a training session at CBU, addressed 83 phone calls, 58 emails and 11 one-onone visits with applicants.
United Way Cape Breton staff, board of directors and campaign volunteers believe in our communities. We want to make a positive impact on those vulnerable individuals who need our support. We need more people to believe in us, so we can raise more money, impact policy change at the government level and build stronger communities across Cape Breton.
We are trying our very best to be financially responsible with donors money. If we lose their trust, we will lose their financial support. We are not trying to eliminate organizations from receiving funding, we are trying to make them stronger and more accountable for the funding they receive. Donors are asking more questions, they want to be informed and they want to know that their donation is making a difference in our community.
We are going to continue to work with all applicants, those who didn’t qualify for funding this round and with those that have been deferred for further review. We are working with a local accounting firm to help with budgets and reporting for those applicants who need additional support. We have agreed to meet with all applicants to help further explain the decisions we made. It is our hope to raise more money next year
The board decisions on funding were not easy ones, we had multiple meetings and we were disappointed that we couldn’t do more. We love our island and we want to make it stronger.
Together we can make that happen. Together, we are moving people from poverty to possibility, helping kids be all they can be, and building strong and healthy communities. If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me @ 902-562-5226 or email Lynne@unitedwaycapebreton.com.