United Way make investments in local impact areas

This week, the United Way of Greater Augusta completed the work required to reinvest $436,000 raised in this community back into agencies and programs that are making a significant impact on our friends and neighbors.

$136,000 of this investment comes as direct designations from donors. The remaining $300,000 is distributed by the Board of Directors to programs which demonstrate an ability to meet a community need.

At the conclusion of a comprehensive process which relies heavily on the help of citizen volunteer reviewers, the Board of Directors awarded funding to 18 local programs, each able to document impact in the areas of household financial stability, mental health, aging, or early childhood development.

For the 2017-18 Awards Cycle, Citizen Investment Review Team members reviewed funding applications and participated in agency site visits. These volunteers made funding recommendations to the United Way Board of Directors for the programs that they reviewed using local impact data and United Way priority guidelines.

Program funding is in direct dollars to local programs and services. The Citizen Investment Review Team and the Board Awards Team worked together using an Impact Model to see that donor funds are directed to community needs and programs that have measurable and sustainable outcomes.

While requests for funding surpasses available dollars this year, agencies were asked to speak to whether partial funding of their request was a feasible option. While the majority of applications were at least partially funded, not every request was able to be financially supported this year. In these cases, The United Way continues to offer executive coaching partnerships, networking and collaborative programming coordination, smaller grant opportunities over the course of the fiscal year, and nonprofit education workshops to help support partner agencies.

United Way will celebrate this investment of funding, as well as recognize the organizations, individuals, and companies that help contribute to community change at the Annual Awards Celebration on June 7th at the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton.

Although the Community Impact Grant application period is now closed, United Way of Greater Augusta offers a Community Contribution Grant throughout the year as funding is available. These year-round grants are designed to help smaller-scale projects with immediate local impact and minimizes the application and reporting burden.