United Way celebrates $4.1M campaign

United Way of Bartholomew County President Mark Stewart speaks at a previous gathering. The Republic file photo

United Way of Bartholomew County has announced online it raised $4.13 million 2019 fundraising campaign — the fourth-best in its existence and just below last year’s record of $4.25 million.

Actually, though, since United Way’s separate COVID-19 Relief Fund currently boasts more than $555,000 collected in just two months, Mark Stewart, United Way president, pointed out that, in reality, the drive could be considered something of a record of its own.

“So it’s been a phenomenal fundraising year,” Stewart said.

He did add that the campaign was at least partially impacted by the novel coronavirus since a number of local corporations launched their United Way campaigns in early spring.

Money for the campaign comes from individuals, businesses, and corporations. In recent years, it generally has included everything from elementary-age children giving parts of their allowance to Cummins Inc. hosting its own high-powered campaigns to boost the community total.

The nonprofit agency that oversees 22 certified agencies and 34 programs originally planned to host a campaign-closing announcement at The Commons. But the pandemic canceled those in-person plans for two different dates.

“There are so many different factors that go into a campaign total,” Stewart said. “There’s the overall economy, and also how the individual businesses are doing at the time.

“There’s generally a strong relationship between philanthropy and the economy.”

Statistics show that United Way programs in some form or fashion reach about one-third of Bartholomew County residents. Its programs through its agencies range from brain health information for older adults to mentoring programs for youngsters to sports leagues for others.

And other stats tell a story far beyond money. Actually, additional figures show the impact of United Way dollars on real-life issues. For example, United Way invested $1.16 million in 2019 in childhood and youth-related success — and yielded 4,316 youth participating in out-of-school, community programs, ranging from Big Brothers/Big Sisters of Bartholomew County.

On another front, United Way invested $1.11 million in mental health — and 87 percent of individuals showed mental health improvement, according to figures from local agencies such as Family Service Inc., Advocates For Children and Just Friends Adult Day Services.

These stats show the width and breadth of United Way’s reach — from some of the community’s youngest members to its oldest.

Plus, some local firms who were key to the United Way Campaign such as Centra Credit Union also have been a key to the COVID-19 Relief Fund. Centra, as one of the Top 10 campaigns, donated more than $54,000 to the general United Way campaign for its workplace giving, and then added $25,000 to the relief fund.

Most of that relief fund donation was in the form of a matching grant.

That helps explain why the company earned the Live United Award announcing the recent campaign results.

Magen Pillar, United Way’s communications manager, recently praised Centra in remarks in a news release.

“They annually run a Top 10 campaign, their employees are go-to volunteers, and their employees have experienced our Poverty Simulation (program) as a way to understand what some of our community members experience day in and day out,” Pillar said.

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The United Way of Bartholomew County annually honors individuals, agencies and companies going above and beyond to help the nonprofit and its certified agencies serve the community. The winners are:

The winners are:

  • GIVE AWARD: Rich and Alice Gold, longtime community volunteers.
  • ADVOCATE AWARD: Dave Jamerson, who has served on United Way’s impact committee and general board; and Julie Del Genio, who has led the impact committee and also been a board member.
  • VOLUNTEER AWARD: Roger Lang, a donor since 1979 and one of United Way’s most veteran volunteers; Pam Donohoe-Duncan, who dedicated countless hours in 2019 to the agency’s stakeholder analysis project.
  • LIVE UNITED AWARD: Centra Credit Union, which regularly leads a Top 10 company campaign and is known for its extensive community volunteerism.

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