SUMMERSIDE - The United way of Prince Edward Island is much more than just a fundraising agency.
David Hennessey, executive director of United Way of Prince Edward Island, said the role of the agency has changed over the years to better meet the needs of all Islanders.
"On this Island we used to fund agencies," Hennessey said. "We would go out and do our fundraising and at the end of the year just hand over the money to member agencies.
"We realized after a number of years that there was very little accountability in terms of doing things this way. So in 2001 the United Way fundamentally changed the way it did business. We wanted to become more of a community builder as opposed to a fundraising broker where we take the in one hand and put it out with the other."
Hennessey said they came up with a plan based on the national model that the United Way was working on on a national level, which with priority programs and funding programs as opposed to agencies themselves.
"What it ended up developing into was a very interesting concept," Hennessey said. "We go into the community once a year and do surveys and our surveys are based on one or more of our five demographic groups which are families, seniors, persons with disabilities, children and youth."
From those surveys, United Way P.E.I. identifies the priority needs within the community on P.E.I. - what Islanders are saying they need.
"From those needs that have been identified we put out a request to all 583 registered charities across the province and anyone of them may apply," Hennessey said. "What we ask them to do is to either put together a program or tell us that they already have a program running that would identify one of these priority needs."
The agencies submit a letter of intent and what their plan or project would be. A volunteer committee from the community reviews all the letters of intent and decide which ones will move ahead.
Hennessey said all information identifying the individual agency seeking the funding is removed and the volunteers do not know which charitable organization they are reviewing.
The whole process is repeated with a dew committee once the agency is accepted with a full application for their project.
Recommendations are made to the board of directors as to which projects meet the needs of the community and depending on the success of the United way Campaign as many new programs as possible would be funded.
"Currently we have 30 priority programs running right across the Island," Hennessey said. "Usually, they are for up to three years. So each year we're carrying some programs forward so we have a huge amount of money that we have to put out each year to keep these programs going. So, there's only a limited amount to put into the new programming."
Hennessey the need is increasing every year and the United Way of Prince Edward Island's goal must also increase.
"The one key thing is that money that is donated to the United Way of P.E.I., every cent stays here," Hennessey said. "We don't have to send it off-Island for any reason, to any national office, or for any other purpose. It stays here to fund our programs and help Islanders."
