The United Way of Central Missouri intends to add to the 28 agency partners it already supports.
The nonprofit announced Thursday it is accepting applications for at least one new agency partner.
United Way is seeking an organization that will address a need that is not being covered by its current partners in the areas of health, education, financial stability or basic needs.
Local chapter President Ann Bax pointed out some underserved areas the organization faces include housing, food insecurity, child care and transportation. It does not have partners working with refugees either.
"Even though there may be lacking in some of those areas with our typical partners, that's where we address those gaps with our community support grants," she said.
United Way considered adding another partner in 2019.
The process was aborted due to the May 22, 2019, tornado that struck Miller and Cole counties, and later the pandemic, Bax said. Her organization's newest partners joined in 2015.
"We took time to grow the campaign for three to five years for those new agencies," she said. "In 2019, we started the process again because our board approved it, we had six agencies that applied. It had been confirmed that we were going to start the process and then the tornado hit."
Currently, United Way of Central Missouri funds 28 nonprofits where 16 serve youths, while the other 12 provide health care, employment, food and shelter services to groups such as people with disabilities and low-income individuals, according to the organization's website.
Funding for the new partner is not expected to affect the funds United Way is allocating to its existing partners. Currently, the organization has set aside around $40,000 for potentially one to two new partners.
"We kind of have three pots," Bax said. "(The finance and audit committee) made a determination of how much we can put into the bucket for additional funding for the fund allocation process, how much we can put into the pool for the community support grants and then how much we could put into the bucket for new agency partners."
Applicants must also provide service in at least one of counties the local United Way serves: Cole, Moniteau, Miller, Osage, Camden, Morgan, Maries, Phelps and southern Callaway counties.
Interested nonprofits must maintain a 501(c)(3) status for at least four years, be legally incorporated and provide proof of fiscal responsibility through an independent audit.
The United Way will accept applications until April 7.
Benefits of being partners
Agency partners enjoy not only funding, but also 10 agency leadership meetings every year where United Way and all its partners gather together.
"We have every agency bring their board leader and a key board member and we were just trying to help them figure out how to strengthen their boards; we also did a minority business council social, to try to help them with diversity on their boards; we've done some HR programming with them," Bax said.
In return, the agencies need to hold their own fundraisers. "We can't be the sole support of an agency," Bax said.
In addition, they need to submit quarterly reports, reapply every year for the fund allocation process, as well as campaign with United Way during its fundraising period.
"It's important to get them out in front of businesses to ask for their continued support, (for businesses) to hear the stories of the agency partners, so we ask them to join us," Bax said.
United Way plans to announce its new agency partner near the end of June, ahead of its campaign period between July and October.
"We want to be able to promote it to the community," Bax said. "But if it takes longer to make the decision, we may have to postpone that."
United Way raised $2.53 million in 2022, according to previous reporting. The organization has not yet decided on the campaign goal for 2024, but as a general trend during the last decade, campaign goals have been steadily increasing, Bax said.
Interested organizations may email Bax at [email protected] or call 573-636-4100.