Sweet Charity: BizVox Visits Amber Wertman

Scott:

Welcome again to BizVox, part of the Electric Secrets variety podcast. We are dedicated to small businesses,  ntrepreneurs, and nonprofits. We are here to build your knowledge, spur your productivity, and have a few laughs along the way. My name is Scott Leon Smith, and I am your host. Let's talk some shop.

During these times of uncertainty, when money is changing hands and being taken from some folks and given to other folks, it's always nice to reflect on philanthropy. And knowing that even though things are uncertain, there are still organizations that are working for people who need money and who need help. The United Way is one of those organizations, and I had the privilege and the pleasure of speaking with the CEO of the North Central Ohio branch of the United Way. Her name is Amber Wertman. She has a big laugh, just like me, and she talked to me about her current campaign. She also talked about how to volunteer and all of the awesome events that she's put together to thank supporters and to get people geared up for raising money. So I did this interview a little while ago, and I will keep you in suspense until the end of the episode and give you a little update on how she's doing.

Amber:

Okay, so my name is Amber Wertman. I'm the CEO of the United Way of North Central Ohio. We are very excited to be in the home stretch of our 2024-2025 annual campaign for our Communities.

We raise money to help people in the areas of successful children, healthy families, and self-sufficient residents. So any programs that we fund are in those categories some way somehow, which isn't hard to find things for those areas. They're the most important. Our United Way serves a five-county region, so we have Crawford, Marion, Morrow, Seneca, and Wyandot.

Most recently, the Tiffin Seneca United Way became part of our family just last year, so this is our first full campaign with them, which is exciting. It's been a great transition. And they’ve been very welcoming, so we appreciate that too.

So we are currently at 75% of our goal. We have until June 30th to raise our total amount needed, which is $1.2 million. And with that, we will be able to fully fund over 60 different programs through partner agencies across our whole region. I know a lot of people like to know how that works.

So we have a whole process with a community cabinet of volunteers. In fact, Tenisha here has been a volunteer before. And what they do is read through all the applications that come in for funding, and we have a scoring rubric that goes through each section first to kind of give it a percentage, right?

So it's based on the collective impact framework and results-based accountability, so we do have a template of what to use. And what we're trying to see and what we're trying to show are donors, whether it be individuals or businesses, or industries that invest in United Way, we're showing them that we are trying to track how these performance measures are actually making a difference in the community.

Scott:

And this is for your volunteers.

Amber:

Well, it's for the programs with the volunteers in the community are the ones that review them to help us decide who to fund and what to fund, and if it's working well. So it's not meant to be a punishment to the nonprofits that are applying to us, but it's really just continuous improvement so that we can move the needle on some big issues in the community.

Scott:

Okay, so do the volunteers represent like a scope of different people?

Amber:

Correct, yeah. Yeah, all age groups, demographics, workplaces, depending on where they were, just a lot of different people. And it's actually a quick, easy way to volunteer. There's no in-person meetings. We do a couple of virtuals at the beginning and at the end as a wrap-up, but other than that, it's on your own time. In fact, we'd love to have you as a reviewer if you'd like to do that.

Scott:

Oh, goodness, I have so much free time.

Amber:

It's all online. You can do it at midnight if you want. Yeah, it's super easy. It's super easy.

Scott:

Yeah.

Amber:

It's super easy. Yeah.

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Scott:

This is so interesting to me because I thought United Way, national world organization, you know, making all your donations online and things like that, I had no idea that there were local branches of the United Way and that they are dedicated to being accountable for what they're gathering, what they're raising, the funds they're raising, and they're dedicated to locally raising that money. I asked Amber to go into a little bit more detail about how they coordinate their local Volunteers. She also added some information about a new initiative for this particular campaign and went into more detail about where your money goes when you donate. 

Amber:

United Way, we do so many things, and we mobilize people and we raise resources, whether it be money or volunteers. So the process is we kick off the campaign every July. There's a new campaign that kicks off and we see how much we can make in a fiscal year for our communities. And so the volunteers are a big part of that, of deciding who we fund and at what level we fund them, who, meaning what programs specifically that fit with those focus areas. We're really excited because this year we're adding a new focus area which is about, give me a moment here, I can tell you, strong communities.

So, besides successful children, healthy families, and self-sufficient residents, we're adding strong communities, this coming campaign year. And that's really because we've seen such an uptick in natural disasters, whether it be tornadoes, flooding, which we've experienced here in our region pretty significantly, especially with the tornadoes and flooding. But it's also about structural fires. There's a lot of United Ways. Of course we've seen out west with the fires and hurricanes, tornadoes, whatever it might be, there just even our Red Cross data shows us there's just been an uptick in all of these things. And so we want to be prepared that if a disaster strikes, we have a fund that we could work with, whichever county that's happening in, we can work with our local community foundations to increase that dollar amount and help people, the victims who suffer from these things.

It could also be vibrant communities. I mean, there are also some projects that come along. A lot of our communities are working on Main Street initiatives to revitalize and bring business into town. There's a possibility that some of that, depending on the situation, could be utilized as well. So anything that builds strong communities, we're all about that. 

And I should mention, this is a big question, that our United Way, United Way, is part of a larger, so there are United Ways all over the world. So United Way worldwide, and then there's United Way of America, and a lot of people ask about ours locally. So we are not beholden to United Way of America worldwide in the sense that we have our own governing board. We make all of our own choices locally. We have representation from all five of our counties on that governing board. And so when we make a decision here, it is based on the need here at home. And as far as your donation being local, we have our operations director who literally enters every single dollar check campaign packet that comes into our office and designates it to the said county.

So at any time, if a volunteer or donor were to ask me like, hey, you know, I'm in Crawford County, I want to make sure this is where my money is allocated to. I can run a report from our donation tracking system and tell you like right now, here's who's giving in this county, here's who's giving in this county, here's how much has come in. So each of our counties, we do, we do make sure because donors request that, right? We take very detailed information down to the dollar, down to the penny, and we are audited annually by a local auditing firm. So we're really proud of the transparency and being able to at any time answer people's questions.

It's easy when we're part of such a global society now. I think it gets really blurred. There's the trust seems to be a little low across philanthropy altogether. I mean, even the numbers show that philanthropy is changing, right? But all the more reason we need the United Way because it's our local pot of money. So we want to reassure people that I love, especially people who do have questions, I'd prefer to just sit down with you and let's go through it together and drill down on it. So we're always happy to sit down with any donor or someone considering donating, or

running a workplace campaign. There's still time to do that. So if they have questions and they were hesitating about running a campaign because of those things, we want to make sure they're reaching out. And even if they don't run it right now, at least there's some education and some clarity around how that actually happens. So does that make sense?

Scott:

It makes a lot of sense. I was thinking about all the wonderful conspiracy people that are posting stuff. You know, the United Way's money goes to fund.

Amber:

Yeah. Yeah. Most of the time I see these things around Christmas that say the director of United Way makes like a million, two million dollars. Well, that's not me. That's the lady out in Washington, DC. Which, you know what? I mean, I get it because it is a worldwide brand, and I don't begrudge her that. The new CEO has really, really has a handle on how things have changed, and we have to change with the times as does everyone else. We have to be constantly evolving, and I just feel like every day, like being resilient is a big, a big thing right now. It's like you, you just have to go with it.

Scott:

So those of my listeners who are thinking about starting a nonprofit, transparency, transparency, transparency. And that's not just in the realm of grant writing, where you have to be transparent with every dollar you spend. You've got to be transparent with your supporters as well. So even charity is no free ride. You've got to be upfront and responsible with those funds. 

As my conversation with Amber continued, she talked about the spring mailer that she sends out as part of the campaign, and those mailers are so important. And how the United Way also helps with emergency supplies and emergency relief, which is something that is very, very necessary, especially for those of us who live in a tornado alley.

Amber:

We're sending out a spring mailer that's going to go to current donors, but also to other folks who may be interested in still contributing. And part of the message in the spring mailer is just that it's like it's a good time to be United Way right now, because we don't receive state or federal funds. Everything we raise is from local people. So we're not beholden to a government entity, but there are a lot of our partners that we fund, our funded partners who they do receive a chunk of change from either the federal or state government. And so there's a lot of them right now who are just really nervous. Will this mean full funding for them? Will they have cuts because of just regulations? And regardless of how you feel about that, it's just a fact. And so there's some of our organizations who, you know, the money still froze in and will we get the next grant? I don't know.

And so again, all the more reason to support your local United Way because I think over time we've become more reliant on governmental dollars than we have, let's say 50, 60 years ago, and that does make a difference. And this is a very real example. So we are United Way also runs the emergency food and shelter program in our counties. In most of our counties, some of our counties, it's run by community action. But emergency food and shelter is all across the United States, and it's run through FEMA. It's a division of FEMA. So we just had a meeting last week about our Wyandot and Seneca dollars, and they're just still on hold. So it's like, okay, so food and shelter, who knows when it'll be opened back up. And while it's in the scheme of things, a quote, smaller amount of money for our communities, it still helps sustain a program. And we don't want the bottom falling out of any of these programs because then it's just more, it's just worse for our businesses and industries and everyone. 

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Scott:

Welcome back, everyone. Continuing my conversation with Amber Wertman, CEO of the North Central Ohio branch of the United Way. She talked about some interesting events that she puts together to help galvanize people into fundraising. And one of those things I actually came in contact with when I was a teacher at a local community college, a program and training called Bridges Out of Poverty. It's a very unique training that helps you to view financial issues through the lens of someone from generational poverty, which helps you to understand why fundraising is so necessary. And Amber also told me about some of the ways that she shows appreciation for her supporters in the annual campaign.

And so some things we're doing to get us to June 30th, we have an upcoming Bridges Out of Poverty training, which is very interactive. It talks about it’s nationally recognized through the AHHA process, and it really talks about the different, the hidden rules. So in high class, middle class, and poverty, there are just these hidden rules that people maneuver and figure out. And it's especially good for social workers or teachers or police, I mean, whoever's on the front lines dealing with individuals from any class, any societal class. It's just a really, that's really the extent I can explain it. It's one of those things where you just have to be there. And it's kind of this, I love that they call it the AHHA process because that's what it is. You sit there and you have these light bulb moments, like, oh, I never thought of it like that.

Scott:

When I taught at North Central State, I had several colleagues who'd done Bridges Out of Poverty. And they would be workshops and things like that to talk about, you know, people who are living in generational poverty, they don't know how to make a budget because their money

is gone once they get it. How do you budget when you're living paycheck to paycheck, and you just think that AHHA is going to be a good student. And I'm like, oh, yeah, I do that too. Yeah.

Amber:

But you make a really good point because the other thing we work on a lot right now is what we call Alice and it's not the active shooter training. That's what everybody always thinks it is. But Alice stands for “Asset Limited Income Constrained but Employed. And you can find that on our website too. But what we're finding is it used to be a United Way was very much like, you know, we end up not a hand down. How do we get people out of poverty? Well, now it's kind of evolved to be the Alice population is who we want to be proactive so they don't slip into poverty. So Alice are people who are working. I mean, I think there's this misconception that, oh, go get a job. Well, most of them have a job but still can't make ends meet. And so it's like, how do we remove barriers to keep them employed and make sure they're not slipping into poverty?

Hence better for their whole family and everything. So Alice is a big part of that conversation, too. Okay, so that's bridges. The other thing we have is, of course, we want to celebrate our supporters. So this time of year, even though we're trying to finish up the campaign and we're getting close, and there's definitely some pledges coming in, which is awesome. We also at the same time want to be celebrating our supporters. So we're going to do something called “Raise a Glass.” We are going to go on a little road show to each one of our five counties and have an event from four to six. It's at four to six in each of the counties. And the first drink is on us.

Oh, we are going to give out some awards at each of these just for businesses and individuals who've made a difference, whether it be giving to the campaign, volunteering, board members. We also have advisory councils in every one of our counties so that we have local people in each one of those counties who are giving us some feedback, and they're very, very helpful. So we just want to celebrate them. 

And then finally, we do a purse bingo every year, which is a very popular event. It'll be a nice icing on the cake. So by June, we hope to be to 100% or really darn close so that at the event it just puts us right over the top and we can celebrate 100% and people can win some purses, food, drinks, door prizes, auction items, all kinds of stuff. It's just a fun, fun event. It's just another way to engage with all the great things we have going on.

Scott:

Rounding out our conversation about the local United Way, Amber also told me about the various coalitions that the United Way helps to form in order to gauge who needs help, the specific type of help that they need, and how that informs their fundraising strategies. 

Amber:

We also run some coalitions. So what we find, the biggest issue in all five of our counties, number one right now, is housing. Housing is a big, big issue, safe and affordable housing, and the lack of housing, transportation, and childcare. So those are all things that we help our local entities, whether it be JFS or economic development, or anybody who's looking for solutions to those.

We try to bring them together and use the collective impact framework to get everyone to the table, even end users, so that we know what they really need. Philanthropy can be a very feel-good thing, and it makes us feel good, but we don't ask the person is this what you actually need. Right? We need to get all the end users at the table to say, hey, we think you need a bunch of food from the back of our cupboard, but maybe that's not what you're really thinking. So I mean it has to be harsh about it, but we have to like bring them in to solve the problems collectively. So easier said than done.

Scott:

Oh, the suspense is killing me. I hope it'll last. Well, here is my update since I spoke with Amber.

They reached their goal. Way before June, in fact, I think it was at the purse bingo event where they went over the top and reached their goal for their annual fundraiser.

So congratulations to Amber, wonderful work she's doing, and to her team and all the volunteers as well who are working tirelessly to get money to those who need it, and being accountable to those who are giving the money.

And that wraps up this episode of BizVox. I hope you learned something and enjoyed our spirited conversation, and if you don't know how to find your local United Way, you can always visit the worldwide website, which is very simply, unitedway.org.

Thanks so much for listening. I am Scott. Let's get to work.

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