The United Way of Butler County will be doing things a bit differently as they begin their new fiscal year on Friday.
Executive Director Kierston Hobaugh issued a memorandum this week, detailing the year the organization had and what’s to come as a new fiscal year begins in July.
For yet another year, Hobaugh says the annual campaign closed short of its dollar goal. This shortfall, coupled with setting grants at unsustainable levels in several consecutive past years, has driven the board of directors to think hard about how to fund organizations to the highest amount possible, while continuing to keep the operations of fundraising consistent and viable for the community.
Moving forward, the United Way will undertake an issue-focus model…meaning the main message will stray from fundraising and into the local lives being positively affected by the organization’s work.
“Internally, this change will affect how we operate, and externally, it will change how we communicate and educate the people of the community,” Hobaugh said Tuesday. “We want a very clear message out there as to what United Way is working to do specifically within the county.”
The board has learned old methods of fundraising are no longer working and there is a need to diversify funds and alter how donors and volunteers are engaged.
Hobaugh says there will still be a fundraising goal for the staff of the United Way because in order to do transformational work, you must have adequate resources. She says this is a change in mindset.
“In the past, our messages made it seem very transactional, we want to set a longer term goal that portrays actual transformation in Butler County,” she said.
Hobaugh noted several nearby United Ways, including in Mercer and Erie counties, have adopted these transformational goals, which include benchmarks such as lifting residents out of poverty by 2030 and educating young children in poverty-stricken areas. That is the kind of goals the United Way of Butler County will seek.
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