Who decides

Who decides how my donation is used?

The Donor Investment Committee, a group of volunteers from our tri-county area, decides how your donation will be used in the community. They take their job very seriously and spend many hours evaluating applications, interviewing program directors, and considering the needs of our community.

It is a long and hard process, said Lester Diamond, Executive Vice President -St. Dominic Memorial Hospital and Chair of the Donor Investment Committee. All of the programs help people, so it is difficult to decide which ones will have the greatest impact on the critical needs of our community.

On behalf of United Way donors, the committee invests in programs throughout the tri-county area that target these critical areas of need: Nurturing children and youth, Strengthening families, Increasing self-sufficiency, and Meeting basic needs. The volunteers also evaluate programs based on their ability to achieve proposed outcomes and their accountability for their program?s performance.

One thing that is commonly misunderstood about the donor investment process, said Linda Hill, United Way Vice President of Community Investments, is that our investment in programs is on a yearly basis, so any qualified programs have the opportunity to re-apply and be re-evaluated each year, as well as programs that previously have not been funded.

Making funding decisions that will have the most impact on the community takes a lot of thought, energy, and discussion. The process can be enlightening for the volunteers.

Volunteering for the Donor Investment Committee has opened my eyes to the many needs in our area, said Diamond. But, I have also become aware of all the beneficial programs available to help our residents in need. The people who run these programs give everything they have to improving people's lives.

This year, 80 volunteers served on the Donor Investment Committee, collectively spending about 1,000 hours going through the process.

The volunteers are very dedicated, said Hill. They take time out of their jobs and their busy lives to make the investment decisions and to evaluate each program's progress at mid year.

If you are interested in becoming a Donor Investment volunteer, please call 601 965-1352.