At the start of 2019, the United Way of Southeast Missouri found themselves in a position most nonprofits dream of. After several of their partners reported program changes in 2018, which resulted in unspent funds, United Way had an unanticipated total of $75,000 of “extra” funds to work with.
Executive director, Elizabeth Shelton, says these were funds they had allocated all along, but that their partners ended up not needing due to changes, or because it was helping to pay for a position that had been temporarily vacant.
She says that when United Way mentioned this to their community investment committee, they spent a lot of time agonizing over the best use of the funds.
“Since it was such a large amount, we were torn between trying to focus it in one area or one of our initiatives,” says Shelton.
But, their partners had already answered that question in a previous annual outcomes report.
“In the last cycle, we added the question, ‘If you had an extra $1,000-$5,000 to spend, how would you spend it beyond what we’re already doing?’” says Shelton. “Those responses were looked at.”
Shelton said one example of this “wish list” was a Bollinger County food pantry’s request for a cooler.
“For the pantry at Whitewater Baptist Church, instead of saying, ‘Feeding 50 more people,’ they said, ‘We could put it in a cooler that would allow us to carry milk, meat, and other products that our people desperately need,’” says Shelton.
According to a press release, United Way partners who benefitted from the additional funds include the A.P.P.L.E Project, Voices for Children, Safe House for Women, food pantries in Bollinger and Scott Counties, the Salvation Army’s Meals with Friends lunch program, Cape Central Middle School ICU Tutoring Program, Educare Programs and Child Development Associate (CDA) Preparatory Classes at Southeast Missouri State University, Hoover Center Adult Day Program, Jackson Senior Center Home Delivered Meals, Lutheran Family and Children’s Services of Missouri Older Adult Services, Scott City Ministerial Alliance Food Pantry and Benevolences, and First Call For Help of Southeast Missouri.
United Way’s community investment committee also voted to give funds to The People’s Shelter at St. James A.M.E. Church, despite the pop-up shelter not being a current partner.
"The committee chose to support the efforts to house the homeless during extreme weather conditions, especially since no permanent shelter exists in the area,” the press release stated.
Shelton says in addition to the accountability of their partners, the lean team of positions at United Way also contributed to the extra funds.
“A lot of people don’t realize that the United Way of Southeast Missouri has only three full-time employees, and we would be able to do a lot more if we had twice that,” says Shelton. “But we intentionally keep our overhead low. And, because of our corporate investors, we’re able to tell our individual donors that 99% of their donation is staying here in southeast Missouri, and going to the programs that we invest in.”