Guest View: The Opinion of Jim West
I guess I’m an
”
easy touch.
”
Whenever a friend or coworker asks me to support some fundraiser
they are involved in (I really do like Girl Scout cookies) I
usually just reach for my wallet without question. But if the
dollar amount were to go up, so would the questions.
Guest View: The Opinion of Jim West
I guess I’m an “easy touch.” Whenever a friend or coworker asks me to support some fundraiser they are involved in (I really do like Girl Scout cookies) I usually just reach for my wallet without question. But if the dollar amount were to go up, so would the questions.
Anybody thinking about donating a few thousand dollars is going to ask a lot of questions. Who has assessed the community need for this project and who compared it with other competing needs? Who has reviewed the organization’s success and accounting practices? Who has conducted site visits and spoken with individuals benefiting from the activities? How much is the dollar amount reduced because of administration costs? This kind of research and follow-up takes a lot of time, but for anyone making that kind of large individual contribution, it is well worth it to have answers before make this charitable gift.
Although I doubt I’ll ever have anything like a thousand dollars to donate, I know I can’t simply rely on friends and coworkers to address all the needs in our community.
Years ago I was given a simple formula that has worked for me. Most of us work about 160 hours a month – give your pay from just one of those hours back to your community every month and you can make a difference. If you earn $15 an hour and give this one hour of your pay every month, you would be giving $180 a year to help the less fortunate in San Benito County.
My problem is that $180 is too much to simply mail off to some organization in the hope that it addresses a real community need, while it’s too small to warrant the time and effort necessary to make sure it’s going to the right place. Even when you double or triple these numbers, the problem stays the same.
For me, the answer is the all-volunteer San Benito County United Way. Our local United Way is a “stand alone” entity with an independent Board of Directors that raises money from local residents and distributes it to meet local needs. It is not a Chapter of the national United Way of America.
The San Benito County United Way has no executive director, no regularly paid staff, no rented offices and no furniture or equipment to eat away at contributions. The only expenses are printing and mailing and half a percent to the United Way of America for the use of the logo. This means 97¢ of every dollar I donate to my local United Way goes directly to meet community needs here in San Benito County.
Every year, volunteers from San Benito County United Way invest hundreds of hours reviewing requests, researching and auditing organizations, conducting site visits and doing follow-ups with community organizations prior to granting any funding. Even then, the nonprofit organization initially gets only half the money in advance, the second half coming after a mid-year review of the program’s success in meeting its stated goals.
This work is done by an Allocations Committee made up of six members of San Benito County United Way’s Board of Directors and six volunteers selected from the county based on their knowledge of community needs and experienced in working with non-profit organizations. This year alone, the Allocations Committee has logged more than 200 hours ensuring that monies donated by residents of San Benito County went to the most pressing needs in San Benito County.
Whether it’s helping seniors through Jovenes de Antaño’s Meals-on-Wheels program; serving youth through the activities of Hollister Youth Alliance; or assisting whole families through the Community Pantry’s food program, the United Way of San Benito helps thousands of County residents through the 16 local non-profit organizations it supported in 2006.
This raises a very important point. I live in San Benito County but my paycheck comes from my company’s headquarters in Santa Cruz County. When I sign up for my payroll deduction I MUST indicate on my company’s pledge form that I want my United Way contribution to come back to my home county.
The San Benito County United Way is a real team effort. Standing alone, my small contribution won’t have much impact on my community’s well-being, but when I team up with others living in San Benito, we can, and we do make real differences in people’s lives.
Please consider joining this effort. Send one hour a month of your pay back to your home community through your payroll deduction program – just remember to “Check the Box” so your money stays in San Benito County.
For additional information call the United Way of San Benito County atÂÂ 297-3547, or go to: http://unitedwayofsbc.com.
Jim West is a spokesman for Granite Rock Co. He lives in Aromas.
