How Do You LIVE UNITED?

In the past year, Josh Wood graduated from Northfield High School with 24 college credits– and left his truancy days behind him.

Charlie Mandile helped 750 of our neighbors get medical care.

David Mucha made a pledge to Northfield from his office in the Twin Cities – and his employer matched it.

Tatum Sawyer added 12 books to her collection.

Over 1,500 of us made a gift to Northfield Area United Way.

Seventeen local organizations held fundraising drives at work, run by dozens of volunteers.

Together, we raised over $400,000.

Thirty three community members helped decide how to invest it, through grants to 31 programs that touch 90% of people in the Northfield area.

 

We bolstered the strength of our community – across Northfield, Dundas, Montgomery,

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Lonsdale, Dennison, Webster, Kilkenny.

We kept it local.

And we changed the lives of those who walk by us every day.

That’s how we LIVE UNITED.  Are you in?

Welcome to the 2011 LIVE UNITED Campaign. Our goal is to raise $450,000. With your help, we can do it.

 Three ways to LIVE UNITED

• Watch your mailbox for the LIVE UNITED booklet. It has an envelope you can use to mail your gift.
• Give at work. Designate your gift for Northfield Area United Way: Put # 25641F on your pledge form. Your employer may match your gift.
• Donate right here, right now. Your gift stays LOCAL.

Charity is Alive and Well

Darn it. When I read the Northfield News story this week on charity scams, I cringed. This is just going to make it harder for the good guys.

And we have a lot of good guys here in Northfield.

Every year, Northfield Area United Way gets grant requests from dozens of local non-profits that do great work – everything from the food shelf and crisis response to the free clinic, mentoring partnerships, and programs for at-risk kids and people with disabilities.

These local charities meet with a panel of citizens to present their request and answer questions – about their finances, their results, their plans for spending money donated through our United Way (and their Plan B if a grant falls short).

It was my privilege last spring to hear all the presentations, and I was blown away. The amount of charitable work taking place in our community is humbling. The people doing this work have such integrity and dedication.

The volunteer panelists who heard their presentations walked out of the room shaking their heads: “I had no idea,” they said, of the depth of need and the quality of charity happening so close to home. “I wish we had more money to give.”

 It’s hard, sometimes, to recognize the good guys – charities and donors alike. Most don’t toot their own horn. Luckily for us, they can come together through Northfield Area United Way, and we can keep helping our neighbors without worrying about getting ripped off.

Nearly $300,000 in Grants

Northfield Area United Way recently wrapped up its Grants process, a three-month procedure that gives money to local non-profits working in human services.

We granted a total of $299,000 to 31 local programs.  Here’s how it came together:

• Helping People in Crisis: $134,970
• Promoting Health and Well-Being: $45,500
• Serving Children and Youth: $86,585
• Serving People with Disabilities: $20,945
• Strengthening Our Community: $11,000

It feels like a great investment in the community.

We reviewed a lot of proposals – and crunched a lot of numbers – over the past few months. I’m still fairly new as the Executive Director, and this was my first time through the Grants process. The experience was exhausting . . . and exhilarating.  It was an eye-opening education on the breadth and quality of services across the community. And not just for me: A number of volunteers who served on Allocation Panels were happily surprised by the wide scope of work that NAUW helps fund. “I had no idea” became a common refrain.

Here’s how the Panel process works: Donors across the Northfield area volunteer to help decide how the funds raised during the fall United Way campaign will be invested back into services that benefit people in our community. They work with other volunteers to review grant applications, hear presentations from the organizations, and make funding recommendations to the NAUW Board of Directors. It’s a group decision, how best to spend the money we’ve got across all the needs before us.

This year we had 24 volunteers, in addition to nine Board members, deliberating over the checkbook. We had tough decisions to make. And the best part was, every single Panel had a thorough, thoughtful conversation about how the money should be spent. They took the job seriously, and gave the process real integrity. It was reassuring that in each of the nine Panels, opinions were quite consistent about how the grant money should be divided – and how we’d spend more, if we had it.

So now you, too, get to see how wide is United Way’s reach — a group photo showcasing some of the orgs that got NAUW grants this year, including (above, left to right): American Red Cross, YMCA, Community Action Center, Healthy Community Initiative, Three Rivers, Northfield Arts Guild, HOPE Center, HealthFinders, Ruth’s House, Semcac Senior Dining, Boy Scouts, IRIS, Project ABLE, Project Friendship, The Key, Reaching Our Goals, TORCH, and Girl Scouts.

        

Community Action Powers Makeover

Wow. Community Action Center has done an ambitious remodel of the Food Shelf and Clothes Closet, and the place looks great.   

The Clothes Closet reopened yesterday – new dressing rooms, easy-to-browse racks, sleek display shelves for housewares, and lots of new clothes to check out. Clothes Closet averages 25 to 30 shoppers a day . . . and most of the regulars have already stopped in. All the merchandise is donated; all Clothes Closet revenue helps fund Community Action Center programs. It’s a great way to clean out a wardrobe (or fill in a wardrobe) and contribute to those in need.

The Food Shelf opens its new space on Thursday. The new layout has wider aisles for shopping carts, more efficient storage space, and a slick new prep area for washing and sorting fresh produce. It’s a substantial set-up for a busy operation: the Food Shelf helps feed 1,400 people a month. It provides over 600,000 pounds of food a year for 500 Northfield families.  Everyone gets fresh produce, baked goods, meat, milk and cheese – a nutritious mix. CAC’s buying power goes a long way: What you’d get for $200 at the supermarket, CAC can get for $50 at the food bank.

A donation of $70 feeds a family of four for a week.

The renovation took two months, dozens of volunteers – including local contractors – and most of CAC’s 14 staffers. The Food Shelf never shut down during the two-month renovation; staff and volunteers ran the operation in the hallways of the NCRC.    

CAC didn’t need a capital campaign to fund the project. Its base of local donations – including donations through Northfield Area United Way – covered the cost. Now THAT’S community action.

Congrats to Jim Blaha, the CAC staff, the many volunteers and donors who made it happen.

     

Hello, Northfield

First a makeover for the Bridge Square thermometer, now a facelift for our Website . . .  Northfield, are you ready to Live United?

Hey, we’ve gone way past 40% of our goal since Griff took this picture – it’s over 70% and still counting. Join us!  

PO Box 56 – Northfield MN 55057

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