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Endowments in Volusia-Flagler jump 3%

DAYTONA BEACH -- Through the Council on Aging of Volusia County, about 10,000 seniors a year are able to eat, live and help others in their community.

Critical to the operation of the Daytona Beach-based nonprofit organization is funding from the United Way of Volusia-Flagler Counties, which will give the council $89,505 this year to fund Meals on Wheels and its volunteer program. The award is nearly a $2,000 increase over last year's amount -- an even more substantial gain when matching state grants are factored in, council executive director Gail Camputaro said.

"All of our local money is critical. United Way is investing in us to enable us to invest in these state and federal grants," Camputaro said, explaining that the state matches $9,000 for every $1,000 the council raises locally through the United Way, Volusia County and its cities and other fund-raising sources.

The council, which has a budget of $5.2 million, is one of 111 programs benefiting from a revamped funding strategy at United Way of Volusia-Flagler Counties. United Way rebounded this year from a bad campaign season and will spread nearly $50,000 more among its programs beginning July 1.

During the upcoming distribution cycle, which ends June 30, 2005, the organization will allocate $2,150,063, a 3 percent increase from the 2003 cycle.

President Ray Salazar said United Way focused on its "leadership givers," people who give more than $500.

To attract them, United Way offered those donors a chance to win a car; giving in that category increased by 30 percent, Salazar said.

United Way also continues to rely heavily on its workplace giving, where it has been most successful in getting donations.

That area has been a strength for the organization, with contributions down 3 to 6 percent nationally in 2003, Salazar said.

"People were being very conservative," Salazar said. "They weren't as confident in the economy, and it showed up in charitable giving. As a result, everybody is competing for very scarce charitable dollars."

Until last year, those groups who had the best presentations were the ones who received the largest endowments, Salazar said. With a tighter budget, he added, United Way had to come up with a less subjective method that was easier to understand and defend.

The solution was a structure based on a hierarchy of needs combined with a scoring system based on certain criteria, such as how essential a program was and how well it has performed.

"Before, we weren't determining our most critical needs, but now we are able to see the real impact of what our funds are doing in the community," Salazar said.

"We're driving up the performance bar to have agencies demonstrate what they're doing with our dollars and how they're changing the conditions of their clients in the community," he said.

The organization did not fund any additional programs this year, nor did it cut funding to any programs.

Last year, United Way of Volusia-Flagler also abandoned the traditional fund-raising strategy of pinning its achievements to a dollar figure, choosing instead to highlight figures such as the 98,000 meals served and more than 900 domestic-abuse and rape-crisis victims helped by United Way programs during the year.

"Everybody would measure success on our ability to raise money, but it's so much more than that," Salazar said. "It's also about what you do after the money is raised. That's what we turned the focus toward."

Errin Haines can be reached at ehaines@orlandosentinel.com or 386-851-7911.