Group responds to Scout
United Way says ‘no funding guarantee’By Dionna Harris
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ESCANABA - Delta County United Way Executive Director Julie Mallard says organizations who apply for funding from the agency have no guarantees how much they will get.
One organization announced it was leaving the United Way Wednesday because of the amount of funding it received. The executive board of the Hiawathaland Council of the Boy Scouts of America voted to withdraw from the United Way of Delta County and work to raise funds through other means.
"We feel the 75 percent reduction to be inadequate and inappropriate for an agency which was one of the founders
of the Delta County United Way," Scout Executive Dewey Jones said in a letter to the United Way of Delta County.
Mallard said the council was never guaranteed an allocated amount.
The amount of funding allocated by the Delta County United Way for 2009 was $2,000, which was less than received in 2008, leading the council to part ways with the Delta County United Way.
"While there was a reduction in funding from amounts presented in past years, it was not in the amount stated by the Hiawathaland Council," said Mallard. "Programs who apply to the United Way for an allocation of funds know going into the application process that there are no guarantees."
According to Mallard, the United Way allocated $170,000 to various programs who applied for funding, in an attempt to distribute funding to the benefit of the community.
The Boy Scouts in departing from Delta County United Way, after 50 years, said in a written statement that the Delta County United Way's allocation for 2009 was set at $2,000, a 75 percent drop from the previous year and over $15,000 less than six years ago.
The Hiawathaland Council also withdrew from the United Way of Marquette County in January when its annual allocation to the Boy Scouts dropped 80 percent to $1,048.
The scouts continue its partnership with Dickinson County United Way, United Way of the Eastern U.P and the Copper Country United Way.
The scouts will not participate in the 2008-09 fund-raising efforts of the United Way of Delta County.
