"Transparency & Accountability"

Lou Martinez, President

You have heard it before and probably have said to yourself, “timing is everything.” If you recall in our last edition of the Quarterly, we devoted the entire newsletter to a presentation of our key community asset . . . payroll deduction. As we explained, it is what we bring to the table to help our community address its health and human services needs. We examined payroll deduction from several different perspectives and tried to help people understand its position and value to our community. We also explained that we would be using future editions of the Quarterly to present more in-depth analysis of LAUW’s operations. That is where “timing is everything” comes into play. In early October, The Times printed a series of newspaper articles focusing on local not-for-profits, their administrative costs, stewardship, and accountability. These are topics and areas of which our United Way is justifiably proud. These articles provided the opportunity to delve into and expose our internal processes and procedures in accounting for community contributions. We realize our covenant with donors is to be transparent, to
honor their wishes, and to be as efficient and effective as possible. These are metrics to which we have committed ourselves and which we continually work to improve. This edition focuses on our transparency and accountability. We will examine how our annual campaign takes, validates and tracks contributions, how this information is transferred to and utilized by our Finance/Administration Committee in determining dollars available for allocation, and how the volunteers of the Allocations Committee work in concert with the volunteers of Campaign and Finance to ensure that expenditure recommendations to
our Board of Trustees are consistent with expected income. Hundreds of community volunteers provide this necessary stewardship and oversight of our member agencies and our internal administrative operations. They contribute an invaluable service to the community by accepting and performing their stewardship responsibilities with seriousness and excellence. I thank them for their diligence and for ensuring that the Lake Area United Way continues to be transparent and accountable to our donors.