United Way announces '07 allocations
Saturday, March 24, 2007 12:02 AM PDT
By Janine Manny
Printable version
E-mail this articleUnited Way of Cowlitz County will give out $586,356 to local nonprofit groups in 2007, a 3 percent drop from last year's distributions, executive director Bob Johnson announced Wednesday.
"Although we gave out a little less than last year, I think most of the agencies will be pleased," Johnson said."We focused on our highest priority --- nurturing children and youth --- so those programs that serve children and youth will be very happy."
The United Way's five areas of focus in Cowlitz and Wahkiakum are nurturing children and youth, strengthening individuals and families, promoting health and healing, supporting older adults and providing basic needs.
Johnson said that the United Way's funding process gauges an agency's ability to show that they are having an impact on current community needs with the dollars granted to them by the local United Way. "
"They do this by presenting outcomes that are measurable and address critical issues locally," he said.
"We know that $586,365 is a significant number and will go a long way to strengthen our agencies’ ability to solve local problems,” said Pat Stankevich, United Way Board President. “We are grateful to everyone in our community who participated in the United Way campaign and contributes to making this a better place to live and work.”
The biggest change in this year's allocation was that the Lower Columbia Community Action Council is not receiving United Way funds. Last year, CAP was given nearly $41,000.
"We did not ask for funding this year," Alan Rose, CAP's community relations director said. "With my new position in community relations, we felt that we could raise donations from the community and not need to compete with smaller nonprofits in the area for United Way funds, that was a concern for us. The United Way was focusing on childhood development, which we support, but we usually request funds for our senior services. We made the decision to support our ongoing senior services, such as Meals and Wheels and Senior Care Services, ourselves."
The United Way also gave out $19,991 to non-partner agencies and out-of-county designations by donors.
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