A group of 60 community volunteers will serve as members of the 2010 Fund Distribution Committee. The committee will review agencies funded by the United Way of Whatcom County to give recommendations for fund allocation to the Board of Directors. Volunteers are broken into four panels which focus on different aspects of community needs. This year is the first time staff members from United Way's partner agencies will serve on the committee. Partner agency staff will not serve on panels which review their own organizations to avoid any conflict of interest.
The purpose of the panels is to:
1) secure the confidence of agencies by visiting them and gaining an understanding of their programs
2) evaluate agency funding proposals
3) recommend program allocations for agencies
Panel categories include the four areas United Way of Whatcom County targets which are youth and family, food and shelter, health and mental health and safety and abuse.
Each panel will participate in three to four agency site visits where they will review an agency and its programs funded by the United Way. These site visits will allow volunteers to see the day-to-day operations of the agency, first-hand. Visits also give an opportunity for committee members to meet agency board and staff members. An awareness of how each agency and program is offering public assistance within the community is also gained through these hour-long visits.
Following the site visits, each panel will meet and deliberate on dollar amounts to award agencies as well as rank each program by importance according to relevancy and need within the community.
Site visits and deliberations will take place throughout the month of May. Final recommendations will be brought to the Board of Directors by panel chair members on June 25.
Pat Atkinson, committee chair of agency relations for 8 years now, said the process is an eye-opening and really positive experience. "The process allows volunteers to see what the safety net is really like," she said. "Members get to actually talk to staff members and see what goes on at other non-profit agencies. I would encourage anybody in the community to volunteer in the Fund Distribution process."
