By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
As the United Way of Greater St. Joseph gears up for its annual capital campaign, volunteers are being sought to be part of the allocations process.
Director of Community Investment Jodi Flurry says around 150 volunteers will work to advise United Way how to distribute campaign funds among its 17 partner agencies
"You know it's the community's money that they've entrusted to United Way, so we need the community to be involved in informing our decisions on how we invest those donor dollars into our partner agencies," Flurry tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline. "And so that's what we're here to do, is to invite the community to participate in the United Way allocations process and have a say in how those donor dollars are invested back into our community."
United Way Board Member Donna Zion says what these volunteers do is very important to the campaign.
"We like to have all different types of people, all different backgrounds, different career backgrounds, volunteers from the community, just retired volunteers, because they provide such a different perspective and they can weigh in on so many issues," Zion explains. "To have us converse about and kind of break this down in what works best for the donor dollars and the different partner agencies."
Flurry says volunteers for the committee will get to hear in a group from two to three of the agencies
"What they're doing, their many different programs, how they're impacting the community and talking about that," Flurry says. "And then the volunteers hear the presentation, they have the opportunity to ask questions about programs, like maybe program changes, or challenges their experiencing, and they also have the opportunity to ask questions about the financial side of things because we do review the financials as well."
Flurry says volunteers learn from those agencies and go through a process of providing feedback to how United Way should invest in the agencies.
Those interested in volunteering can contact Flurry at the United Way offices or can visit the United Way's website.
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