With five weeks remaining in the 2015 campaign, the United Way board of directors discussed fundraising plans during their meeting Monday afternoon.
The Elizabethton/Carter County United Way has received pledges or collected funds for 62 percent of the $160,000 campaign goal.
Board chairwoman Candy Craig said the agency is around $60,000 short of the goal with just over one month left to collect the outstanding balance.
“We have a plan to bring that money in,” Craig said.
United Way Director Cheri Tinney provided the board with a list of past contributors who had not yet made a pledge or a donation to the 2015 campaign.
Craig asked each board member to reach out to at least one person on the list to urge them to make a contribution.
Tinney then asked the board of directors to make their own contributions to the campaign. She said while some had made contributions, others had not and suggested they consider doing that.
“It will help us in our community campaign if our board of directors have all made contributions,” she said. “It could help raise our thermometer up.”
She continued she planned to start a board of directors campaign earlier for the next year’s goal. She said the early contributions from the board would help jump start the next campaign.
The United Way is partnering with the Downtown Business Association during February for a “Share the Love” event. Participating business will have jars in their stores for shoppers to make donations to the United Way.
For the rest of the campaign, Tinney said she had leads in the community and would be working to make those connections. She said she had plans to speak at the Kiwanis Club meeting and was open to speaking at any business or organization to share about the United Way campaign.
Tinney updated the board that she had selected people to serve on a board to distribute funding received by the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be used locally. Tinney said around $28,000 from FEMA had been distributed to Carter County for the United Way to oversee how it was used.
Tinney said three agencies; Assistance Resource Ministries, Hale Community Ministries and the Neighborhood Service Center, had applied to receive the funding.
Tinney told the board she has started a new Facebook page for the Elizabethton United Way. The page also has a donate button to allow visitors to make contributions through Paypal.