United Way donations hit record

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The United Way of Stutsman County received a record $229,005.69 in donations for its 2012-13 fundraising campaign.

The organization announced the total at its annual meeting Thursday at the North Dakota Farmers Union building in Jamestown.

“This really is just amazing,” said Carla Edinger, vice president of the United Way of Stutsman County Board of Directors. “Without our donors and community supporting us, this doesn’t happen. We are grateful for their support.”

Board Treasurer Shane Ede said one reason for the group’s fundraising success is the variety of fundraising events.

“Our kickoff was really fun this year,” he said. “It’s no longer a stuffy meeting; we had a hoop shooting competition, a cake walk. It was a lot of fun.”

Ede teased the annual meeting audience about the fundraising goal when he said “It’s been an exciting year in that we set the goal and we hit it.”

At the September kickoff for the 2012-13 fundraising season, United Way of Stutsman County officials were optimistic about meeting the $200,000 goal. They had exceeded the 2011-12 goal of $185,000 by $8,000.

Edinger said surpassing the fundraising goal for a second straight year was due to changes in the fundraising campaign and participation of the board of directors.

“We made changes in how we put our campaign together,” she said. “We have some new people on the board and this is the best board I’ve ever worked with.”

Ede said the best news about the United Way of Stutsman County fundraising effort is that 99 percent of the funds raised are used locally.

“For every dollar we receive in donation, 99 cents stays here and that is fantastic,” he said.

There are 22 agencies that receive help from the United Way of Stutsman County, including the Buffalo Valley Chapter of the American Red Cross, the James River Valley YMCA and the American Diabetes Association.

The group had 17 of its more vigorous business donors increase donations from last year.

“Our donors all did an outstanding job and were very generous,” she said.

Edinger said now the board of directors will host a retreat sometime in April to review the funding requests from the 22 agencies.

“We need to get together and review the requests and see what we can do,” she said.

Sun reporter Chris Olson can be reached at 701-952-8454 or by email at colson@jamestownsun.com

Tags: local news, news