OCTOBER 1995
VOLUME 3, ISSUE 2 / $5.00
Phi]Mthr(|)y Journal
A new challenge
United Way donors want to see results
In a competitive funding environ
ment, United Way agencies real
ize they must show concrete
proof that their programs are
successful. But proving that
solutions work is not as easy as
simply proving how an agency
spends its money. The cozy days
of the United Way family of
agencies may soon be over.
By Sean Bailey
Big changes are on the horizon for
United Way agencies.
The way such nonprofits prove
they are doing good is about to under
go a major rethinking. When funding
time rolls around, it may no longer
suffice for the agencies simply to
describe how they try to solve com
munity problems. Donors want proof
the solutions work.
MANAGING
“We are talking about a major
paradigm shift in human services
that is going on across the nation,
and United Ways are just becoming a
part of that wave,” says Dennis K
Orthner, a professor at the School of
Social Work at the University of
North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Orthner is playing a key role in
bringing the new thinking to North
Carohna. Last summer, he briefed
United Way executives throughout
the state about how to critically mea
sure programs by looking for real,
concrete changes in the Uves of peo
ple touched by United Way funding.
Rather than evaluating systems in
the traditional way by looking at the
“actions or activities” that an agency
takes in spending money, the new
“outcome-oriented” approach
involves measuring the
impact of the program on the
people it is designed to serve.
This shift in evaluating
programs stems from
changes in how private
employers measured work
place performance under the
rubric of “reengineering” the
corporation. Big business
wanted proof that its profits
were being wisely and effi
ciently spent. Now, many of
those same corporations demand
that their philanthropic contributions
be held to a similar measure.
“There was a time when they sim
ply wanted to know that their money
was being spent effectively, but today
they want to know they are making a
difference with the funding decisions
we make,” says Gloria Pace King,
executive director of the United Way
of Central Carolinas in Charlotte.
Dennis Orthner
Measuring “return on
investment” in the pri
vate sector is often a
straightforward, quantifi
able process. But mea
suring the dehvery of
human services - youth
programs, respite care
for families with termi
nally ill members, home
less shelters - may prove
more elusive. Sometimes
successful outcomes can
not be easily defined or can be mea
sured only over a long period of time.
“How do you detect the difference
between vague good works and some
thing that really, concretely con
tributes to the condition of the people
being served,” Orthner says. “That is
the dilemma.”
RESULTS, NOT ACTION
Charity was less complicated in
earlier times. In many cities, United
Way agencies essentially controlled
the funding decisions. Business and
industry happily participated in try
ing to remedy community problems,
and the United Way was the best
organized and least complicated way
of doing it. Decisions about funding
community priorities essentially
came from the staffs of the agencies.
The key feature of this arrange
ment was stabiUty. Once a nonprofit
joined the “family” of agencies, its
long-term funding was virtually guar
anteed. The only key issue regarding
funding was how weU the local annu
al appeal fared.
Measuring program effectiveness
only was a matter of the agency
explaining what it did. If an agency
continued delivering a service to
cheats, that in itself was justification
for continued funding. For instance, a
Look for UNITED WAY, page 9
A decade of need
Raleigh free cMc marks
10th anniversary
"■staff and volunteers at The Open
Door Clinic in Raleigh are cele
brating the organization’s 10th
birthday with mixed emotions.
They are happy to be providing
needed services but are sobered
by the growing number of
patients lining up each week for
free health care.
By Barbara Solow
Raleigh
It’s just after 5:30 on a steamy
late-summer afternoon and the wait
ing room at The Open Door Clinic in
downtown Raleigh is fuU.
A little boy in a sweat-
stained T-shirt grabs a fist-'
ful of animal crackers
offered by one of the cUnic
volunteers, then dashes
back to his mother. A raU-
thin woman in office-worker
clothes flips quietly through
the pages of a magazine. An
elderly man sitting next to
her coughs, rubs his hand
across his eyes and shifts
wearily in his seat.
Down the hall, clinic
Director Marilyn McNeely is
answering questions about
the evenings schedule and
HUMAN RESOURCES
helping volunteers find needed forms
and equipment.
Orinarily, patients would have
been lined up outside the renovated
depot that houses the free clinic and
two other projects of the Urban
Ministries of Raleigh. But today, it
was just too hot, McNeely explains.
“I couldn’t have them all standing
out there in that sun so I asked every
one to come in early”
When it opened 10 years ago in
one room of a downtown church
across from Moore Square, the free
Doctors Mike Rodman and Leslie Marshall examine
a patient at the Open Door free clinic in Raleigh.
Photo courtesy of Raleigh Urban Ministries
clinic was the first of its kind in North
Carohna. Since then, it has become a
model for a network of about 15 sim
ilar clinics operating throughout
North Carolina.
The Open Door - now located in a
renovated warehouse on Semart
Drive near downtowm - provides free
medical exams, lab tests, medicines
and referrals to 3,000 low-income
patients a year on a budget of about
$110,000. A network of 300 medical
and “lay” volunteers keep the walk-in
clinic and its licensed pharmacy run
ning three nights a week for up to 25
patients a nigit.
In recent years, gynecological and
dental care have been
added to the hst of available
services, and on
Wednesdays, the clinic is
open by appointment to
patients with chronic dis
eases.
Like many of those
involved with The Open
Door, McNeely - who began
her tenure at the clinic as a
volunteer nurse - has mixed
feelings about the organiza
tion’s 10th anniversary
“I’m glad that we’re here to
take care of people who
really need care,” she says.
«* V lit
■“V "Ife ■H ft
'
Students relax at East Carolina University, which, along with its med
ical center, dominates the nonprofit sector in Greenville.
Photo by Merrill Wolf
At a crossroads
Challenges confront
Greenville nonprofits
Look for OPEN, page 5
As Greenville's most generous cor
porate citizen reduces its opera
tion, competition for funding and
the need for better communica
tion in the nonprofit sector are
intensifying.
By Merrill Wolf
Greenville
The sudden appearance of a vast
medical complex is the first indica
tion that a visitor has reached
Greenville. In contrast to the tobacco
fields of rural Pitt County, clusters of
medical offices begin to line U.S. 264,
A SENSE OF PLACE
marked by signs advertising a pletho
ra of medical specialties.
Soon the University Medical
Center looms on the left. Like the city
itself, the medical center is dominated
by Pitt County Memorial Hospital,
Greenville’s largest employer. A ban
ner hanging above the emergency-
room entrance gives new meaning to
the hospital’s initials: “People Care
More Here,” it reads.
This phrase could be the city’s
Look for GREENVILLE, page 21
1 mmmm
1 fOMNimMS
i VOUINIi^
CORPORATE GIVING
FUND RAISING
Preserving culture
of farmland
Learning from
southern history
AmeriCorps delivers
the goods
Community relations
touchdown
Targeting dollars
for growing needs
Threatened by the expanding
Chorlotte-Mecklenburg area,
10 counties are working to
save their natural and cultural
resources.
The legacy of the North
Carolina Fund is the focus of
a collaborative project at
UNC-Chapel Hill.
The Americorps program in
North Carolina is changing
the lives both of the people
touched by the volunteers,
and of the volunteers them
selves.
In his new community rela
tions job tor Duke Power,
Richard Williams draws on his
experience - and the inspira
tion of his mentor.
Tar Heel United Way affiliates
that are raising their fundrais
ing targets say they are doing
so because member agencies
need more help.
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Connections 3
Grants and Gifts 16
In October 16
Job Opportunities 20
Opinion 10
People 17
Professional Services...!8