organization is reaching out to smaller operations
County charitable
organization is reaching out to smaller operations
By Sherry conohan
Staff Writer
VERONICA YANKOWSKI Jose Pena, the new director of United Way of Monmouth County, is settling into his position and helping the organization head in a new direction.
The winds of change are blowing through United Way of Monmouth County.
The terrorist attacks of 9/11, the faltering economy with downsizing by large corporations and changing attitudes about philanthropy all play into a revamping being guided by Jose Pena, the new president and chief executive officer of the organization.
Pena, who comes to Monmouth County from United Way of Eastern Fairfield County in Bridgeport, Conn., where he was president and chief executive officer for the past five years, said the new United Way is relying more on its board members and volunteers than ever before.
He said the organization needs their help in evaluating a broader array of services seeking funding from United Way and in soliciting donations from more, smaller companies than the larger corporations called on in the past.
"I have inherited an organization that was running very smoothly and efficiently, and the credit for that goes to my predecessor, Jim Burke," he said. Burke served for 27 years before retiring.
"Jim’s an example of someone who has lived out the principle of doing good for others."
But, he added, "While this organization has done good work, every organization needs to change. Every organization needs to ask itself, ‘What can I do better?’ What are the experiences I can bring from my 20 years in United Way?’"
Pena said a lot of people don’t understand what United Way does, and a major goal of his is to get it out of the "groundhog syndrome." That, he explained, takes its name from the short public life cycle of United Way.
"United Way pops up once a year, asks for money, then disappears for another year before popping up again," he said.
Pena said the events of 9/11 put United Way of Monmouth County into a new kind of venture. He pointed to the Monmouth County Sept. 11 Resource Center it has set up at Brookdale Community College in partnership with the county to provide counseling and assistance for those in need of help.
To date, $2 million has been raised for the support of the resource center, of which $1.8 million has been spent, Pena said. He said this money has been kept separate from the funds United Way traditionally raises in the fall.
"It’s open to the community," he said of the center. "It’s been in place for about four months. Our plan is to continue that as long as it’s needed."
In its more traditional role, United Way of Monmouth County provided funding for 70 organizations last year, Pena said. It just announced that it will be funding 61 programs from 48 nonprofit health and human service agencies in the county in 2002-2003. The average grant is $18,159 while the largest is $53,500 for 180 Turning Lives Around, formerly known as the Women’s Center of Monmouth County. The total amount being distributed among the 61 programs is $1,105,921.
United Way kicked off its fund-raising campaign for this fall on Monday.
Pena said the selection of groups selected for funding has evolved. Previously the organization focused on large, well-established, well-known entities, but that focus now also includes smaller, emerging ones.
Five agencies are receiving funding for the first time this year — the Epilepsy Foundation, Garden State Consumer Credit Counseling, the Handicapped High Riders Club, the Jersey Shore Medical Foundation and the Senior Citizens Activities Network.
Pena said the selection process begins with groups of five to 10 volunteers meeting with representatives of organizations seeking funding.
"The panel will interview them and make a decision," he said, noting that the recommendation will then be sent to the Board of Directors. "The Board of Directors of United Way ultimately approves the decisions from the recommendations."
"For many years," he noted, "the endorsement of United Way was considered the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval."
There are 42 individuals on the board, according to Pena. He said they include bankers, lawyers, teachers, CPAs, housewives — a broad spectrum.
"We try as best as we can to mirror the community we serve," he said.
"United Way strives to be inclusive," he stressed.
Pena said that to raise the money needed to fund the agencies, United Way used to go out to large corporations in the county and in an office-wide canvassing could raise $200,000 from one account, such as AT&T, Bell Labs and Lucent Technologies, with payroll deductions.
But with downsizing, there are very few large companies left in the county, and United Way must approach many additional smaller businesses to raise the same amount of money.
"We need to go to a lot of medium- and small-sized companies," Pena said. "We need to have a whole new mind-set.
"We have to roll up our sleeves and go out and knock on doors, and we have a lot of them," he continued. "They just have not been cultivated."
This is where United Way will look for more help from board members, he said.
"One of our best resources is our board members," he said. "Through them, we can contact — we can access — local businesses."
In the same vein, Pena said, United Way needs to customize its pitch to each of the smaller companies rather than rely on one stock speech for its appeal, which again means more work in the changing business world.
"We aren’t going to go to a company that may employ a lot of women and talk to them about NFL football," he said. "We’re going to talk to them about organizations that help children as they will include lots of moms."
Pena said United Way is also responding to changing patterns of philanthropy by making it possible for donors to specify what agency they want to receive their money. But, he said, this "donor option" program is more commonplace in some other chapters.
"In Connecticut, 121/2 percent of the donors do this," he said. "Here, it’s less than 7 percent."
Pena said that what he’s trying to promote is splitting the donation, with half going to the agency of choice and half going into the general fund to finance all the community organizations. When too many donors get "myopic" by targeting their gifts for just one agency, the others suffer, he noted.
United Way of Monmouth County, housed in the New Jersey Natural Gas building on Wyckoff Road off Route 34 in Wall, is one of 1,400 United Way chapters in the United States and 2,400 in the world, according to Pena. He said the Monmouth County chapter has 10 employees and a budget of $785,000 for staff and fund-raising expenses.
During the last fiscal year, from July 1, 2001, to June 30, 2002, United Way of Monmouth County took in $2.4 million from local contributions and a slice of the tri-state United Way pie, which provides it with some income from corporations that have no headquarters in Monmouth County but have employees who live or work here, such as Chase Manhattan Bank, IBM, UPS and Home Depot.
It distributed $1.3 million to local organizations, provided the $785,000 for administrative costs and gave the remaining $300,000 to charities outside the county that were designated recipients in the "donor option" program.
Pena said the scandal that rocked United Way in 1993, when William Aramony, president and CEO of United Way of America, and other executives in the Alexandria, Va., national headquarters embezzled more than $2 million for a high-flying lifestyle, affected not only United Way but all nonprofits.
"They lost sight of what they were doing, who they were helping, and were helping themselves," he said. "That sent a wake-up call to nonprofits all across the country.
Pena noted that Aramony and two other co-conspirators went to prison, and he said United Way has put safeguards in place to prevent any recurrence.
"I report to the local board of directors," he said.
Pena, who took over the reins at United Way of Monmouth County in early June, is renting an apartment in West Long Branch for the time being, until he and his wife sell a house they have held for many years in Dallas, Texas. They have two daughters: Claudia, 22, and Monica, 20.
Pena is a native of San Diego, where he initially worked as assistant to then-Mayor Pete Wilson after graduation from college before joining United Way. He said he was sent by the city to United Way on loan for a time, enjoyed it and did it again the next year. Finally, in 1975, he said, he took a leave of absence to work for United Way and never went back to his job with the city.
His assignments since then have taken him to Los Angeles; Spokane, Wash.; Alexandria, Va., where he knew Aramony before the scandal broke; and Baltimore before heading to Connecticut and finally to New Jersey.
"I was very idealistically driven," he said of his decision to join United Way. "Twenty years later, I like to believe I’m still optimistic, but I’m not as idealistic now that I’m older. But I’m still optimistic about people.
"The people here in Monmouth County are very caring and giving," he added.
Pena said he’s looking forward to shaping the change coming to United Way here. He invited anyone interested in helping the agency to submit a résumé.
"We’re always looking for a few good volunteers — both men and women," he said.