By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Before there ever is a United Way fund drive, there is an allocation process.
United Way of Greater St. Joseph Community Investment Director Jodi Bloemker says the United Way is recruiting volunteers to review its 17 member agencies and their funding needs.
“More than 100 community members volunteer on an annual basis to review the agencies and say this is where we need to invest these dollars to have impact in the areas of education or health or financial stability, to have as much impact as we can through these agencies to make our community a better place,” Bloemker tells host Barry Birr on the KFEQ Hotline.
Bloemker says the process was delayed this year in hopes of being able to do more of the meetings on a face-to-face basis, rather than virtual as was the practice during the coronavirus pandemic.
Bloemker says the United Way needs as many as 150 to 180 volunteers to review the requests made by each of its agencies.
“This is not an easy task,” according to Bloemker. “You will have to make difficult recommendations. We have limited resources and you might review some agencies where you’re like, I want to give them everything, like all two million dollars, I want to give our three agencies and it doesn’t work that way.”
Bloemker says volunteers are the heart and soul to everything United Way does.
“We have more than a thousand people who typically volunteer for us in a year,” Bloemker says. “So, we miss our volunteers, very much. United Way is run by volunteers and we miss our volunteers. So, we’re so excited to welcome back volunteers, encourage new community members to get involved with this process.”
She says this is one of the first major tasks the local chapter of the United Way has taken on since the coronavirus pandemic limited gatherings, let alone raising money.
The United Way fund drive will begin in September with a likely goal of raising around $2 million for its member agencies.