A New Model For

United Way Funding

To the Editor:

For the past three years, the United Way of Northern Fairfield County has been transitioning to a Community Impact model. We would like to use this public forum to announce that in January 2005, any nonprofit agency with health and human service programs serving the residents of our seven-town area — Bethel, Brookfield, Danbury, New Fairfield, Newtown, Redding, and Ridgefield — is welcome to apply for funding.

Our local United Way board endorsed the Community Impact approach in the spring of 2001, and since then teams of volunteers, including our board members, nonprofit agency representatives, community leaders, public servants, and business people, have helped us become both a catalyst and a resource provider that focuses on root causes of the most pressing needs in our community.

Based on our community knowledge, the input of volunteers and agency representatives and our thorough 2003 Community Needs Assessment, the United Way is focusing on the following areas of critical need in the greater Danbury area: Increasing Self-Sufficiency; Successful Kids in Strong Families; Community Wellness; and Encouraging Community Involvement.

Our currently funded agencies have been kept informed of — and several have participated in — this process, and in 2004, the United Way continued the transition with an interim funding process which allocated funds to previously funded agencies in the same percentages of the total of the dollars raised in the United Way’s campaign as in the past year. This one-year hiatus from the traditional zero based funding was designed to give those agencies another year to understand and internalize the new paradigm of Community Impact and to prepare for the open funding process to come in 2005.

In January, the United Way will issue a single Request for Proposals (RFP) based on desired goals and outcomes that cover the four Community Impact focus areas. These goals and outcomes have been developed by teams of volunteers with expertise in each impact area, including nonprofit agency representatives, community leaders, public servants, and business people. Any nonprofit agency — including those funded in the past — serving the greater Danbury area with programs addressing these issues, is welcome to respond to the RFP by submitting a letter of intent for each program. Please keep in mind that the United Way funds programs, not agencies. As always (with the exception of the 2004 interim funding), funding will be zero-based.

This new approach is designed to seek out those programs in the community which best demonstrate the ability to address the identified community goals and outcomes, especially through cooperation, coordination, and collaboration with other programs. It is important to note that all agencies applying for funding must meet the United Way’s standards of affiliation. Although agency representatives have helped us form our goals and outcomes, they will not be among the volunteers involved in funding decisions, so as to avoid any conflicts of interest.

The United Way encourages any agency that has not previously been funded and wishes to learn more about this new open process, to contact Alecia Andrews, director of community building, at 792-5330, ext 27, for information about outcomes measurement and the United Way standards of affiliation.

The overall goal of Community Impact is to partner with those programs that can show results and accountability in improving lives in our community in the four areas we have identified as priorities. We feel that the Community Impact model strengthens our existing mission, vision, and values, and that the result will be improved lives in our community.

Sincerely,

June Renzulli

President

Dan Parnell

Chairman of the Board

United Way of Northern Fairfield County

85 West Street, Danbury                                        December 13, 2004