Show the Way

Help United Way decide where dollars should go

source: Detroit Free Press Editorial

Like so many households, businesses and governments around the state, the United Way for Southeastern Michigan is facing critical decisions about its future and the best use of resources.

But rather than sounding a call for additional donations, the organization is asking the community it serves to help set its priorities. An unprecedented region-wide survey affords area residents an opportunity to help determine how the United Way should spend the money it collects to do the most good.

The need for input grows with the list of social challenges facing the region. United Way President Michael J. Brennan insists that the organization must narrow its focus or be overwhelmed by the demand. Rather than spreading money more thinly in many places, he hopes to determine where United Way dollars can really make a difference.

Difficult as it will be for the agencies that come up short, Brennan is right. There is only so far dollars can be stretched without losing their impact. And the community should have a say in the organization's tough choices.

This survey effort is really less about the organization than it is about the people living and increasingly struggling for any number of reasons in metro Detroit and how best to serve them with United Way dollars.

Because the survey is voluntary, the United Way will have to weigh its findings against other assessments of regional needs that the organization is doing in its two-year refocusing project.

Still, the more response the better. On or before April 7, residents of Wayne, Oakland and Macomb Counties should ponder, then voice, how much importance they place on programs that help families thrive, children learn, disabled people have advocates and everyone gain access to affordable housing. Citizens' answers will help the United Way determine where to place its financial focus.

The United Way is putting incredible power in the hands of the people it serves. They should readily accept the invitation.

To participate in the Community Action Survey, call the United Way's 2-1-1-line or 1-800-552-1183 anytime or go online at www.uwsem.org.

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

Detroiters should help United Way focus its mission

The United Way of Southeastern Michigan is taking a welcome step to becoming more efficient about how it targets fund-raising money. Besides trying to measure how the organizations it funds perform, it is also surveying where it should spend its money.

The charitable organization traditionally has focused on funding social services activities, but it is surveying area leaders as well as the public about how to sharpen its focus. You can go to the United Way's Web site at www.uwsem.org or call 2-1-1 to take its Community Action Survey by phone. It's a good way for Metro Detroiters to help the nonprofit group stretch dollars and make them work better. [source]