United Way of Benton & Lincoln Counties has made good on its promise to get back in the black.

Last week, United Way - which had fallen as much as $230,000 behind on grant payments to local social service agencies - paid off the last of its debts. It sent long-awaited checks to Community Outreach, the Presbyterian Preschool and Childcare Center, Home Life, Vina Moses, the Philomath Youth Activities Center, the Boys & Girls Club of Corvallis and the Girl Scouts of the Santiam Council. In all, those payments totaled $37,912.

And there's more. United Way's 2007-08 workplace giving campaign, which now is wrapping up, appears on track to match last year's fundraising totals of $450,000 in Benton County and $77,000 in Lincoln County. It appears that one of the darkest chapters in the organization's local history is indeed history. For our community's many nonprofit social service agencies and the people they serve, that's good news indeed.

"We're all grateful," said Lee Tinker of Community Outreach. "For nonprofits, United Way had always been a stable source of community-based funding. … It's looks as if they've been able to turn things around, and that's good for them and good for us."

United Way's financial problems, significant as they were, do not appear to have been caused by any legal improprieties. Rather, the organization dug itself into a deep hole with years of overly optimistic fundraising projections coupled with declining donations and lax budgeting practices.

Getting out of that hole required drastic action. The organization sold its building in downtown Corvallis and significantly cut its local staff and operating costs. It also suspended all grant-making activities for one year.

Executive Director Jennifer Moore was brought on board in late 2006 in large part to clean up the problems and put United Way on a new course, and she seems to have succeeded.

Dave Zaback, executive director of Home Life, said Moore restored his faith in the organization. "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," Zaback said.

Now that it has made good on past promises, United Way is gearing up for the future. In order to remain financially sound, Moore and the local United Way board have made some fundamental changes in the way the organization operates. It's a leaner machine, to be sure, but that's not all. A big change is that future grant-funding decisions will be based on firm pledge figures, not on projections as in the past.

There is still work to be done, both to raising money and to restoring United Way's local image.

As an umbrella fundraising organization, United Way needs to work hard to reach as many potential supporters as possible in our community with its message of working together to help those in need. It also must share its plans and its progress with the many nonprofit agencies here and with the public in order to rebuild vital community networks and show that it's an organization that can get the job done.

Making good on past promises is the way to inspire confidence in the future. To us, United Way looks to be fit for the challenges ahead.