Posted: Saturday, February 16, 2008 12:00 am
Fundraising group makes good on $230,000 in promises
By BENNETT HALL
Gazette-Times reporter
The United Way of Benton & Lincoln Counties is back in the black.
After falling behind by as much as $230,000 on grant payments to Benton County nonprofits, the umbrella fundraising organization has made good on its pledge to square those debts.
"We're all paid off," Executive Director Jennifer Moore said Friday. "The checks went out in the mail on Monday."
The final payout of $37,912 was shared among seven local social service agencies, with the biggest chunk - $12,662 - going to Community Outreach Inc. Other nonprofits receiving past-due grants were the Presbyterian Preschool and Childcare Center, Home Life, Vina Moses, the Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis, the Philomath Youth Activities Center and the Girl Scouts of the Santiam Council.
Only Benton County grant recipients were affected by the shortfall. No allegations of wrongdoing ever were raised. Rather, the board of directors blamed several years of overly optimistic fundraising projections combined with declining revenues and lax budgeting practices for the problem, which arose before Moore took the reins of the organization in late 2006.
United Way took a number of drastic measures to clear the red ink from its ledger, from selling its downtown office building to cutting staff and slashing expenses. Most drastic of all, it suspended all grant-making activities for one year.
"That was a tough decision," Moore acknowledged. "But it was the right decision because it didn't make sense to make new grants when we couldn't honor grants from past cycles."
Now United Way is gearing up to start making grants again.
The organization's 2007-08 workplace giving campaign is winding down, and Moore said pledge tallies are on pace to match last year's totals of $450,000 in Benton County and $77,000 in Lincoln County.
The United Way has streamlined its grant-making process, replacing multiple funding cycles with just one per year. This year's grant applications will go out at the end of March, with funding decisions to be announced in June followed by quarterly payments to the agencies. Unlike past years, all funding decisions will be based on firm pledge figures, not projections.
The organization is calling for volunteers to help evaluate grant applications.
Home Life, which operates group homes and provides supportive living services for 52 developmentally disabled adults in Benton County, banked a $5,000 check from United Way this week, the last of its overdue grant money.
"I'm very impressed with Jennifer coming into a big financial problem. She just took it on and made a lot of tough decisions and got it done," said Dave Zaback, Home Life's executive director.
The fact that Moore's organization has now honored all of its financial obligations to area nonprofits, Zaback added, restored his faith in the local United Way.
"I'm confident they can start fresh and do some good fundraising and be an effective agency again," he said.
For her part, Moore said she's relieved to be able to close the books on this chapter of the United Way's history.
"I'll be honest, I didn't think we could do it in the amount of time we did it. We couldn't have done it without the support we have from the community and the leadership we have from the board," Moore said.
"And it's sure going to make the '07-08 funding cycle a whole lot more fun."
Bennett Hall can be reached at 758-9529 or bennett.hall@lee.net.