Living United

United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area 2012 Annual Report

We are very proud of the work our board of directors has done this past year in researching local needs and determining where services were lacking and how best our United Way could make an impact in our community.

Our 2011-2012 Annual Report does a great job in explaining the issues and showing how we are addressing them through community impact grants and direct services.

We'd love your feedback.

 

 

Posted by Kim Connolly

Nonprofits, Audits, Financial Strength and Transparency

If it is August, it must be audit time at our United Way. Each August, two auditors from Hantzmon Wiebel, LLC take over the lunch table on our third floor for an exhaustive review of our financial records. From individual donations, to grants we have received, to grants that we make to other local nonprofit programs, our audit is complicated. In addition, we are the fiscal agent for several programs like The Santa Fund and Women United, among others. Plus, we have several direct services of our own, such as Child Care Scholarships, Prescription Assistance and the United Way Volunteer Center. Whew! No wonder the auditors set up shop upstairs for about a month.

Why is all this important? Transparency and accountability. When a donor is evaluating a nonprofit, they should also look at the organization’s financial stability and efficiency. An annual audit should be available on that organization’s website. If an organization is not large enough to require a full audit, they should have at the least an independently performed year‐end income and expense statement available to the public.

Not only do we have a full audit performed every year, we also have an Audit Committee which includes a Darden professor of economics, a corporate Chief Operating Officer, and an accountant.

One of the results of our fiscal and management practices is that our overhead is impressively low – last year it was a mere 16.01%. The Better Business Bureau states that nonprofits should spend no more than 35% on overhead. Not only do we require ourselves to have a full audit each year, we also require an audit from each local agency applying for a United Way Community Impact grant. If an agency's revenues are under $200,000, the agency may submit a financial compilation in accordance with Statements and Standards for Accounting and Review Services issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. When a program receives a grant from us, you know it is well-vetted.

Ask the hard questions. We welcome yours. Our Audit Committee has worked very hard to make a complex document clear and understandable. Here is last year’s audit. Once this year’s audit is complete, we will post it on our website. We are proud of our well run, financially stable and - most important – effective organization!

While is all this important? Because heartfelt stories and emotion-triggering photos need to be balanced with proof of financial stability and program results. Nonprofit donations are like investments in a program’s stated mission. And folks want to see a good return on their investment. United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area is invested in School Readiness, Self-Sufficiency and Community Health. What are you invested in? Join us and see the results.

Reflections on 18 Years with United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area

Today is my last day after 18 years at the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area.  What a joy it has been to work with such a great group of people in such a great community!  I took a position in 1994 coordinating our Child Care Scholarship Program; since then I’ve gotten to be a part of helping thousands of local families with quality child care, prescriptions, health insurance, financial literacy, tax assistance and much more.  But the real joy is not the numbers – it is knowing that there is a story and face behind each one.  I know that our community is a much better place for the work that I’ve had the privilege to be a part of each day for 18 years.

So my thanks to all the wonderful United Way staff members, each special volunteer that I’ve gotten to work with, each donor that has helped support the United Way, and all the community partners that show such commitment and compassion each day.  It has been humbling to witness what you give to others every day, and I am thankful to have shared this journey with each of you.  I will miss you – keep up the great work!

Posted by: Jon Nafziger,
Vice President for Community Initiatives

 

With Your Help, We Are Changing Lives

Wow.

A little recent number crunching on our part yielded this statistic:

The average annual benefit this past year for our United Way RxRelief Prescription Assistance Program clients was $4,017 in medications (retail cost) -- this represents 30% of the average annual income of our clients ($13,186).

This is how we have an impact on our community.

In order to qualify for assistance from this program, individuals must have a chronic, long term condition like diabetes, heart disease or mental illness that requires medication, and they must be uninsured.

They no longer have to choose between paying their electric bill or paying for medications. They are staying healthier because they are taking their medications regularly. This reduces the need for emergency medical care, which reduces the financial burden on hospitals treating uninsured patients, or on the families facing insurmountable medical bills. Because they are healthy, they miss less work, so they have a steadier income and their employer has a consistent employee.

Community Health and Self-Sufficiency are two of our impact areas (the other is School Readiness). This program, in which our employee, Medication Assistance Caseworker Helen Frye, spends her time mostly at the Charlottesville Free Clinic and Region Ten Community Services Board, as well as at Martha Jefferson Hospital's satellite offices, demonstrates how we can leverage our resources to have a very large impact.

When you are considering where to make your charitable donations this year, please consider how our United Way uses your donations to maximize the ways we can have a positive impact on individuals’ lives and strengthen our community.

 

Posted by Kim Connolly

UVA Employees Can Have a Powerful Local Impact

Starting today, October 3, employees of the University of Virginia, our area’s largest employer, can support their favorite charities through the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign.

This workplace giving campaign allows employees to designate a gift to a specific nonprofit organization or several organizations. With more than 12,000 employees, just imagine the impact if each gave $1 a week to an organization! Not all employees do participate, but many of those who do, designate $5, $10, $20 or more per pay period.

The United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area was formed in 1943 by the Charlottesville Regional Chamber of Commerce, and has from our beginning been known for our workplace giving campaigns. This is not a surprise since we were formed by a business owners organization. However, we are just one of 1,300 nonprofit organizations that UVA employees have to choose from in their state-run campaign.

It is our hope that our friends and neighbors at UVA have heard and read about the many ways we have an impact on our local community, and that they realize that every dollar contributed to the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area not only stays here in our local community, but because of our strength, stability and thoughtful leadership, we bring $4 of services to the community for each dollar donated.

We focus on school readiness, self-sufficiency and community health.

In the past year:

• 2,100 volunteered for the United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring, providing $280,000 worth of labor to local nonprofits and schools.
• 2,416 children received shoes, clothing, medication and eyeglasses through the Santa Fund.
• 1,500 low-income individuals received free tax help creating $2.6 million in saved fees, tax credits and refunds, to be saved and spent in our local community through our local Earned Income Tax Credit coalition.
• 575 uninsured adults received $2.24 million in needed medications through our prescription assistance program.
• 100 United Way child care scholarships were provided and 96% of those parents maintained their employment.
• Volunteers collected, sorted and distributed over 50,000 lbs of food for local food banks through the Stamp Out Hunger Food Drive, for which we recruit volunteers and provide local marketing.

In short, we hope that University of Virginia employees will scroll down that long list of national, international, regional and local organizations to get to the end of the alphabet at the “U” and use code #3627 to designate the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area to receive their support through the Commonwealth of Virginia Campaign. We promise to use their gifts in a thoughtful, impactful and powerful way to change lives right here in Charlottesville and Albemarle, Greene, Fluvanna, Louisa and Nelson Counties.

 

Posted by Caroline Emerson

We Don’t Just Wear the Shirt, We Live It.

To Live United means that you give, advocate and volunteer. It means that when you reach out a hand to one, you influence the condition of all. It means that we are all interconnected, interdependent, united. It means that you think of We before Me.

At the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area, we try to Live United every day. Our staff is cause-driven – we like to help people, and love to be able to do it for a living.

So when it came time to design our ads for The Hook’s Annual Manual and C-Ville’s Best of C-Ville issues - which people tend to hold on to - we tried to incorporate that theme into our ad.

Here it is – what do you think?

 

Posted by Kim Connolly

Calls for Help

Martha Trujillo, our Community Outreach Coordinator, who runs our Information and Referral Center, reported at our staff meeting this week that in January and February of this year, we answered nearly 2,000 phone calls. The majority of those were from people responding to our advertising of free tax preparation through the Thomas Jefferson Area Earned Income Tax Credit Coalition (coordinated by United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area). However, others were for our Insurance for Children Project, Child Care Scholarships and Prescription Assistance programs. And, as usual, many were from people seeking help for a variety of issues, ranging from utility and rent assistance, to assistance with immigration forms.

 Each phone call represents a person or family seeking help to better their lives. We are proud of our staff members who are on the front lines of changing lives and who have worked with these callers to provide information, support and direct services. We also know that it is a team effort, from raising the funds that make it possible for us to provide these services, to those who keep our records up to date so we have the information we need at our fingertips. Our staff rocks!

Nonprofit Collaboration in Charlottesville

At the recent Center for Nonprofit Excellence National Philanthropy Day luncheon, the keynote speaker, Dr. Paul C. Light, gave a talk entitled “Driving Social Change in a Time of Urgent Threats.” He emphasized the need for nonprofits to collaborate.

Those of us from the United Way were nodding our heads in agreement. "Collaborate” could be our middle name. We have collaborated with our local school systems for years to create awareness of our project to sign up all eligible area children for free FAMIS health insurance.

Our Child Care Scholarship Program collaborates with the social service departments of the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County.

In the spring, we collaborate with the local letter carrier’s union and the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank to promote the “Stamp Out Hunger” food drive. Because of our strong media partnerships, in 2008 the number of pounds of food collected nearly doubled, and this year we increased collections by thousands of pounds again. Our Volunteer Center made the connection with the Civil Air Patrol which has adopted the food drive as an annual volunteer activity.

We have applied for and received grants on behalf of two local coalitions, enabling us to hire new staff members to coordinate the work of coalition members so that considerable strides have been made for both groups: the Smart Beginnings initiative and the Thomas Jefferson Area EITC Coalition.

The Initiative for Effective Nonprofits is a collaboration of the Wardle Family Foundation and the United Way, working together to provide capacity building grants to local nonprofits so that they can strengthen their business practices.

Our Prescription Assistance program provides a Medication Assistance Worker who works at the Charlottesville Free Clinic and Region Ten Community Services Board every day, signing up individuals without health insurance for free prescriptions from more than 200 pharmaceutical companies.

About to kick off for this year is The Santa Fund, a collaboration between The Daily Progress,  NewsRadio1070 WINA and the United Way. We collect and distribute the funds by working with the school systems in several counties to identify kids with everyday needs like a pair of winter boots, eyeglasses, school supplies and so on.

Women United In Philanthropy was formed in 2004 by the United Way as a way of informing and empowering women to address the needs in our community. Since then, it has taken off, and has awarded nearly $120,000 in grants to local organizations. As a matter of fact, the Charlottesville Area Community Foundation based its Future Fund giving circle on the Women United in Philanthropy's model.

Of course, the Big Kahuna of collaborations is the United Way Laurence E. Richardson Day of Caring, coordinating 2,500 volunteers from 70+ businesses and organizations with more than 100 nonprofits and schools.

Those are just the formal collaborations we have here at the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area. We have dozens of other everyday collaborations with local nonprofits, businesses and media outlets. It is because of these partnerships, big and small, that we are able to leverage our staff, volunteers and donations to have the biggest impact possible in order to change people’s lives for the better.


A Good News Health Care Story

Health care reform is once again getting a lot of media coverage. Both local and national stories have featured individuals who have to choose between paying the rent, buying food or paying for prescriptions. Here in Charlottesville and the surrounding counties, the United Way-Thomas Jefferson Area has been offering the RxRelief Prescription Assistance Program since November 2007. To date, Helen Frye, our Medication Assistance Caseworker, has helped hundreds of individuals get free prescriptions from pharmaceutical companies for their chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease and mental illness. To date, more than $1 million in free prescriptions have been received locally through our program. Helen can be reached at 972-1701. She keeps regular hours at the Charlottesville Free Clinic as well as at Region 10 and can also meet patients at Martha Jefferson Hospital satellite locations.

I help a lot of people get medications that they can't afford. The cost of medication is always rising, and I see people who have low incomes and can't pay for their medication.  Lately I've seen an increase in patients who have lost their jobs or their hours have been cut so they're no longer eligible for health insurance. They were used to just going to the pharmacy and getting their medications for a small co-pay. Now they are faced with having to pay full price for the meds out of the unemployment that they receive.

 I was able to sign up one lady over the phone right away and she was able to go directly to the pharmacy and get her prescription filled. She said, "I don't know what I would have done without your help". The cost of her meds without insurance was close to $500/month. She said there was no way she could get them and pay her normal household bills too. It made me feel really good to be able to help.
 
I love what I do and have never had such a rewarding job. I never get tired of hearing how the program has helped the patients. I'm happy to be able to help!

Helen Frye
Medication Assistance Caseworker