United Way board presents to Pachyderms

A local group heard Friday about ways they can help others in the community through United Way.

Pastor Curt Curtis of the Havre Assembly of God Church spoke to members of the local Pachyderm Club at their bi-weekly meeting in the Duck Inn Vineyard Room Friday about his work on the executive board of the United Way of Hill County.

The United Way of Hill County is one of 1,800 around the world, the website for the United Way says, and raises money for local nonprofits it partners with.

Curtis first began his work on the United Way's executive board five years ago, when his friend Kyle Leeds asked him to.

At first, Curtis said, he didn't know what to make of the invitation.

"I was like, I don't know anything much about the United Way," Curtis said.

But Curtis said that he always thought that, as a pastor, he had to be sure to guard just spending his time around people who thought like him, and decided to join the board after Leeds recommended him and he had talked to then-Executive Director Lorraine Verploegen.

"So I thought to myself as a pastor here in Havre, it would be good for me to broaden my horizons a bit and hang around with some people who don't think exactly like me," he said.

The Hill County United Way was established in the early '70s, Curtis said. Each year, the 15-member board works to raise funds for between eight and 15 funded partners, organizations that provide services to Hill County residents.

"We raise money to help support the funded partners' budgets so they concentrate on providing their services," he said.

Funded partners are decided through an application process and then an interview with a board each year, Curtis said.

The United Way has 11 funded partners this year, Curtis said.

Those organizations are Court Appointed Special Advocates, or CASA; the District 4 Human Resources Development Council Domestic Abuse program; Family Planning; Feed My Sheep Soup Kitchen; Havre Food Bank; North Central Senior Center; HRDC Adult Basic Literacy program; Meals on Wheels; Salvation Army; and Hill County's DUI and Drug courts.

Curtis added that he and other board members talk at businesses to employees as well as local organizations to raise their visibility, educate the public about United Way's work and solicit contributions from individuals with those organizations.

Though their preference would be for employees to make routine contributions through automatic payroll deductions, they also accept one time-donations, he said.

Curtis said he addresses Pachyderm Club, Greater Havre Area Ministerial Association and his own church as well as whomever else he is asked to.

When Curtis first started on the board, he said, the United Way "did OK" with fundraising, but it experienced an exodus of board members.

"Have you ever joined something and been like 'Boy I am glad I got on here' just as the ship is sinking?" Curtis asked the audience.

Some meetings had only 4 members of the 15-member board show up, he added.

But recently, vacancies on the board have been filled by people in their 20s and early 30s who have infused the board and the United Way with new energy, he said.

Last year the United Way also received a new leader when Curtis and others on the board voted to hire Jessica Nebel as their new executive director.

Each fall, the United Way has a big fundraising push by the board.

Curtis said that each year, funding partners in their application put down how much they want the United Way to raise for them.

For a while, each year they would fall well short of their goal.

"In years past, it was almost a joke, you could put whatever amount of money you wanted in there, but you knew you weren't going to get it," Curtis said. "You knew that United Way wasn't going to succeed in raising the money that you needed and that was sad."

The past two years, however, the organization has let its partners know that they are out to raise the complete amount that those partners ask for and have made fundraising their highest priority,

"It was getting quite a bit lower than where we wanted to be, and so we have really picked up on that," Curtis said.

"It is our goal to meet that 100 percent," he added.

He said that, last year, the organization raised the full amount for all of their partners and this year all of them will get the full amount they are asking for.

Last year, the United Way brought in $80,000 in donations, meeting their challenges for their funded partners, Curtis said. This year, it is set to raise $100,000.

The United Way's biggest local fund raiser has been their annual crab boil at Beaver Creek Golf Course.

People attending receive a crab dinner and get the chance to take part in wine auctions, as well as live and silent auctions.

Curtis said the idea came from Nebel and started last year, adding that the boil was held for the second year this year and serves as a crucial fundraiser to kick off the fall fundraising campaign.

The crab boil brought in $30,000 this year.

"So we are well on our way towards that goal," Curtis said.

Curtis said all funds stay within Hill County. He said the organization does have to pay national dues to the national United Way but the board has decided it will cover that, so none of the money the organization raises goes toward paying dues.

The executive director, which is a part-time position, has her salary paid through some of the money from fundraising.

The board also has come to acknowledge that not everybody wants to fund all of the funding partners when they make a donation, he said, so donors can pick and choose which ones they want to give to and how much.

Curtis said he has been a champion of doing that because some of those groups that the United Way partners with conflict with his own personal beliefs.

Curtis said he remains on the board of the United Way after having met with all of the organizations or individuals that represent them and told them what United Way does and why. Businesses have been less willing to allow United Way board members to give a presentation to their employees, Curtis said, rather, the businesses often opt to give a one-time donation to them.

He said that, while such contributions are appreciated, it does not do United Way as much good as a presentation would in promoting its work and building a broader base of donors.

"So you lose that sense of anyone knowing who you are and what you are doing," he said.

Many businesses have made their big contribution through the crab boil, Curtis said, with a business often buying a table and then sending a few people to it to participate in the auctions.

He said that even when the economy is sluggish, United Way has been able to succeed because it has a unified board and believes in what it is doing.

And because people want to give, he added.

"Even if they are not making a lot of money, they still want to give," Curtis said.