United Way exceeds regional goal

Feb 21, 2013 (Independent Tribune - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- CONCORD, N.C. -- United Way of Central Carolinas wrapped up its 2012 annual fundraising campaign on Wednesday and announced that it slightly exceeded its $21.2 million goal.

The regional group, which serves Cabarrus County, Anson County, Charlotte/Mecklenburg County, Mooresville/Lake Norman and Union County, raised a total of $21,201,393, according to a press release.

"We're so excited," said Barbi Jones, Cabarrus community director for United Way. "We did it. Their campaign is our campaign, so that is just as important." Currently, the campaigns are still being audited, but Jones said the Cabarrus chapter is projecting that it has reached its local goal of $485,000.

The $485,000 goal encompasses all money raised by the local chapter. Of that amount, the Cabarrus chapter's goal for money only to be used locally was $440,700, and it raised $473,200, Jones said. The regional total of $21.2 million raised represents the money only designated for local use.

Thanks to a successful campaign, Jones said the group hopes to allocate the same total amount to partner agencies as it did last year. Cabarrus agencies received about $1.2 million last year, and across the region, agencies received $16.5 million, she said.

Within the last couple of weeks, an anonymous donor put the Cabarrus group over its goal with what Jones called "a very generous gift." "They wanted to make sure we were successful in reaching our goal," Jones said.

She added that a number of individual donors who had not given in a while also stepped up, and as in years past, corporate donations and corporate campaigns made up most of the money raised in Cabarrus.

Jones also attributed the successful campaign in Cabarrus to Chairman Michael Hurlbert's hard work.

Hurlbert said he was grateful for and proud of everyone who participated.

"We just tried to tell the United Way story to as many people as we could," Hurlbert said. "We were not afraid to ask, and we just tried to give people the opportunity to make a gift." The regional group said in a press release that four companies -- Duke Energy, Bank of America, Family Dollar and Ingersoll Rand -- stepped up to close the final gap, contributing a combined $255,000 to push the campaign just over its target.

This was the second year in a row that United Way of Central Carolinas exceeded its goal. The group raised $20.9 million last year, which was 5 percent more raised than the year before, according to the press release.

Now that this year's campaign has concluded, partner agencies are currently working on and submitting their funding proposals, and the volunteer Community Investment Councils will meet March through May to make suggestions for allocating that funding, Jones said. The group will announce in June how the money is distributed among partner agencies.

"We are so grateful to the community for their support," Jones said. "We are very excited about this next phase, to be able to allocate the money and meet community needs." And even though this fundraising campaign has ended, the group is already planning for the next campaign, which will kick off in September.

Jones said Diane Honeycutt has volunteered to be the Cabarrus campaign chairwoman, and the group is in the process of getting plans together for the campaign.

"We're excited to start all over again. ... It's exciting to see the impact the dollars make in the community," Jones said.

Contact reporter Jessica Groover Pacek: 704-789-9152 ___ (c)2013 the Independent Tribune (Kannapolis, N.C.) Visit the Independent Tribune (Kannapolis, N.C.) at www.independenttribune.com Distributed by MCT Information Services

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