Welcome to the Darke County United Way, Inc.
Giving is the heart of our organization. Without dedicated community leaders helping us
raise funds, and without Darke County residents, businesses, and employees giving from
the heart, we would not be able to offer our services to Darke County. If you are new to
the United Way structure and want to learn about the benefits of giving please read this
information. Also you may call Lauren Henry, Executive Director at the office at 937547-1272. I am happy to meet with you and describe our outreach. When you give to
United Way you are actually giving to 28 non profit programs in Darke County (24
agencies and 4 internal programs). All gifts stay in our county. It is a great way to give
to a large scope of programs without having to give at many different places. Here is a
little bit about us.
Our Mission
The purpose of the Darke County United Way is to increase the organized capacity of people to
care for one another.
This is accomplished by five core principles that base the actions and decisions of the Darke
County United Way. They are:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Assessing health and human service needs in our community, and addressing
those needs.
Fostering cooperation among all health and human service organizations
providing services to Darke County.
Developing and allocating both human and financial resources.
Promoting Darke County United Way and its affiliates.
Integrity of managing Darke County United Way efficiently and effectively.
Services we allocate funds to:
Our Partner Programs:
The Darke County United Way is proud to have 24 non-profit, 501c3 registered agencies
as our partners. The monies raised each year in our campaign stay in Darke County and
are distributed to the following agencies based on allocation decisions made by our
allocation team of 32 members including board of directors and community leaders. All
agencies must submit an application in February with program features, outputs, outcome
measures, and financials including an IRS 990 and yearly audit to prove accountability
and financial stability. All agencies are visited during the allocation process and
interviewed for more information as well.
Donors also have the option of giving a private donation to any other 501c3 in the nation.
We are happy to distribute these monies. All of these designated donations are subject to
up to a 25% administrative fee as outlined by the IRS. Any leadership donation is
exempt from this administrative fee.
We would like to introduce our agency partners for 2011:
American Red Cross- Darke Catholic Social Services
County
Big Brothers/Big Sisters
Community Unity
Boys and Girls Club
Cancer Association of
Darke County
CAP (Community Action
Partnership) – Supportive
Housing Program
CAP – Emergency
Homeless Shelter
CAP – Meals for the
Elderly
CAP – Senior Assistance
Program
Stuff a Bus
Darke County Recovery
Darke County YMCA
Financial Assistance
Community Services for the Grace Resurrection
Deaf
Community Center
CORS (Council on Rural
Fitzpatrick House
Services) – Gateway Youth
CORS – HandsOn West
Miami Valley Boy Scouts
Central Ohio
CORS – ACES Programs
Darke County 4-H
FAME – Financial
Assistance for Medical
Emergencies
Familywize Prescription
Drug Program
Rehabilitation Center for
Neurological Development
SafeHaven
Strides n Stirrups
Dolly Parton Imagination
Library
To become a member an agency must be a registered 501c3 in existence for at least one
year and must apply and go through the allocation processes.
Through our partner agencies the Darke County United Way was able to serve every 1 in
2.5 people in Darke County, which is approximately 20,800 people or 42%.
United Way’s Internal Community Impact Programs – Providing better impact for
residents in the form of financial stability, education, and medical needs.
Bridge the Gap - The Bridge the Gap Fund is in its fifth year in existence in Darke
County to help address the basic needs of our residents at or below 22% of poverty by
helping them “bridge the gap” with shelter, utility, and medical assistance in times of
short-term struggle including loss of jobs, disabilities, illness and other issues that arise,
which make it hard for our residents to make ends meet. The Bridge the Gap fund
provides between $2500 --$30,000 in a given year in direct financial assistance,
depending upon grants to fund this project, and with your help we hope to do more.
Since 2007 this program has helped 306 individuals/families in the county.
Stuff A Bus
The Stuff a Bus program, in its sixth year, is serving Darke County school children and their
families with a source for school supplies. Last summer (August 2010) with the generous help of
Darke County, we were able to collect 10,000 school supplies. These are distributed to the local
school districts which include: Ansonia, Arcanum, Bradford, Franklin Monroe, Greenville,
Mississinawa, Tri Village, and Versailles. We have also added the Board of Developmental
Disabilities Anthony Wayne school this year. In the summer of 2008 we collected 6,000 items
for children in need of supplies during the school year. During 2005-2010 we collected close to
50,000 items for children thanks to the donations given from our counties’ residents.
Familywize Discount Drug Program
The Darke County United Way is proud to team up with Familywize to provide drug discount
cards to our Darke County residents. We introduced the new cards February 2008 and within the
first month of use saved $365 out of $614 in claims, a 59% savings in just one month! Cards are
available at our office, the Department of Health, Job & Family Services, Community Action
Partnership, Comprehensive Health, and most of the local pharmacies. Since starting in
February 2008 we have saved Darke County residents $143,467.12 as of July 2011, helping
with 12,940 claims!
We have also started an exciting new program - the Dolly Parton Imagination Library.
We have received our first two grants to begin working on this project, which is a literacy
and reading project serving the dream of Dolly Parton. With this project have 99 children
signed up through Head Start and other programs to receive books from birth to age five
that are selected by literacy and early education specialists. The Dolly Parton Foundation
donates the books and the partnership where Darke County United Way and United Way
of America come in are to help with the cost of postage for sending these books to
children’s homes. We have also graduated about 30 children from this program. We are
now adding the Anthony Wayne preschool children to this program as well.
Demographic of # of Participants Served
*Balance of community means that the local either was not tracked (example:shelters) or that it is from smaller rural areas such as
Rossburg, etc.
Our agencies also provided 3,090 nights of lodging and over 5,800 meals for shelter
victims in 2010 serving 167 individuals and families needing safe shelter. The population
in Darke County is approximately 50,000 residents. We are serving 42% of Darke
County residents with our services, almost 1 in every 2.5 residents.
Our agency in collaboration with EMA, Ohio Citizens Corp, HandsOn West Central Ohio, Red
Cross, and the Department of Health is also one of the partner agencies in the Volunteer
Reception Center (VRC) of Darke County, which is a center for organized processing of
volunteers during a time of disaster to keep clean-up efforts efficient in the area and volunteers
best trained to handle these situations. We also participate in Make A Difference Day in October,
Ohio’s largest day of service and volunteering.
Please consider a gift from your heart to the United Way. Give.Advocate.Volunteer. You could
be reaching out to your neighbor, or you could be using these services at sometime in your future.
Remember please call the office if you need more information. To run a campaign within your
organization, please have your employer contact our office and checkout our tools on
www.darkecountyunitedway.org.
Thank you very much for learning more about the Darke County United Way, Inc.
Sincerely,
Lauren Henry
Executive Director