CONWAY — The United Way of Central Arkansas is close to meeting its campaign goal of $575,000, said Maret Cahill-Wicks of Conway, executive director.
“We are close; we’re $40,000 short,” Cahill-Wicks said. “We would love it if people would help us jump over that last bit.”
The United Way of Central Arkansas supports 35 programs in 20 agencies in Faulkner and Perry counties.
“We want to make sure everybody gets what they want,” she said.
“Most of our campaigns have been up, and we’ve put on six new workplace campaigns,” she said. “We’ve been working more with the Faulkner County Sheriff’s Office; we had not been in there for a few years.”
Fundraisers were held, including the annual Jeans & Bling event, which brought in $50,000, she said, an increase of $10,000 from last year.
Agency site visits are underway by 20 teams composed of five to six people each, including a couple of board members.
“We ask people from the community, kids at the college; we ask all of our corporate donors — we ask them to encourage their employees — and we ask our board members for sure,” Cahill-Wicks said.
She said that for the first time, the grant process is taking place online instead of with a packet of paperwork. The site-visit-team members go online and get a link to the agency’s information that shows how much it is requesting, how many people its programs affect, the agency’s financial information and more.
The teams physically visit each agency for a tour, too.
“Say we’re going to the senior center — you’ve looked at the grant, you’ve already looked at the [Internal Revenue Service form] 990, and then I gave them a list of sample questions. There’s an agenda,” she said. Agency representatives are told what the team members expect to know, “so the agencies are prepared.”
After the site visits, board members come together and look at scores that Cahill-Wicks compiles for each agency.
“Because we’ve done it online this year, the computer’s compiling a lot of it, which is wonderful,” she said. Board members also see comments that site-visit members make.
Cahill-Wicks said one comment was from a community member on a site-visit team who wrote that because she has an aging mother, she chose to go to the Ola and John Hawks Senior Wellness and Activity Center in Conway.
Cahill-Wicks said the woman wrote that it was “an amazing thing what they do with the budget,” and that she had been giving to the United Way since 1991 and sometimes wondered why she was still giving. The woman said it made her proud to see how the money was used and added that she would spread the word about the “great work United Way is doing in the community.”
“I got goosebumps when I read it,” Cahill-Wicks said.
In about two weeks, board members will interview each agency’s representatives.
“If you got a not particularly great score, you will be able to come in and talk to board members about that,” Cahill-Wicks said. “It’s quite the process, which is good, because you know your money is being wisely spent.”
The original goal was to complete the fundraising campaign in March, but now she is aiming for May 30.
“I’d like to finish it up because right now is when I’m budgeting. Say I’m an agency, and I ask for $10,000. Depending on how much we’ve collected, [board members] say, ‘OK, Maret says we can spend this much.’ If I don’t have a decision by May 30, I have to forecast it. I don’t want to forecast it. I want to say, ‘This is our goal, and we made it.’”
Many agencies get other grants because they are a United Way agency, Cahill-Wicks said. For example, the Faulkner County Day School can turn $1 into $9, she said.
Although $40,000 sounds like a lot to raise, Cahill-Wicks said it’s doable, considering that the population of Faulkner County is 119,000, and Perry County is 10,000. Residents can go online at uwcark.org and donate.
“We’re doing a lot better than we have in years past. I think we’re rebounding,” she said. “We’re really excited; I think we can make it.”
For more information, call the United Way of Central Arkansas at (501) 327-5087, or go by the office at 1120 W. Oak St. in downtown Conway.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.