United Way of Lake County Inc

What it reported doing in 2024

Community impact includes coordination of agency staff, volunteers, and other resources to conduct activities for the betterment of the community. Our annual day of caring was held in june where lake county companies, organizations, and individuals adopted projects submitted by lake county agencies, and we helped to pair hundreds of volunteers with the projects. These efforts help to save our non-profit partners tens of thousands of dollars in labor and supplies. During the grant allocation process in the spring, we ran our annual feed lake county drive through a solicitation mailing and 100+ companies and organizations ran food and monetary drives. Because of the support of so many companies and individuals, we were able to host several food distributions all throughout the year, totaling nearly 43,000 in direct food purchases, on top of distributing tens of thousands of pounds donated by area companies and individuals. We also moved to being an on-site year-round pantry where our partner pantries can obtain the food their specific pantry needs. The hunger coalition was also formed to keep partner pantries and other agencies dealing with food insecurity informed of needs, best practices, collaboration efforts, etc. We also have two affinity groups that were able to thrive throughout the year. The emerging leaders (el) are made up of a group of lake county young professionals that host an annual golf outing, 4 under 40 awards ceremony, and other fundraising/network events throughout the year. Because of their efforts, they were able to allocate tens of thousands of dollars to programs related to their youth-driven mission, including 10,000 directly to the youth united way program for high school students. Women united comprises lake county women whose mission is to improve the lives of women and children in lake county. They were able to host some of their regular events throughout the year, including a speaker series, and their signature winterfest event was held in november, where the in-person donations and online raffle proceeds helped to make this a record-breaking winterfest. Dollars raised from wu fundraising efforts are allocated to programs that support at-risk women and children in lake county, and share the same process as the el group. Because of their efforts, women united was able to allocate over 111,000 to mission-driven programs. Under the leadership of dione demitro, uwlc continued to be more visible in the lake county community and involved in several community projects, initiatives, and partnerships. We have partnered on herofest, an event to raise funds for first responders, have grown our role in the annual back to school bash where over 1,500 children get supplies and clothing to be school- ready, coordinated the severe winter weather overnight program (code blue), and collaborated to help fill emergency needs with the continuation of our responsive fund grants process with over 28,000 of direct funding.

Financial Efficiency

• Mission deployment rate: 90.7%; rating input score 91
• Program expense ratio: 83.3%; rating input score 83
• Fundraising efficiency: $7.33 raised per $1 spent on fundraising; rating input score 28; 28th percentile among comparable filings

Transparency & Controls

• Consistency checks: 93.8%; rating input score 94; 24th percentile among comparable filings
• Pay-setting controls: Limited
• Foreign activity oversight: Limited
• Grant itemization coverage: 98.6%; rating input score 99; 47th percentile among comparable filings
• Major donor itemization: Yes; rating input score 100
• Related-party transparency: Limited

Accountability

• Independent voting board: 100%; rating input score 100; 63rd percentile among comparable filings
• Governance controls: 8 of 8 controls in place; rating input score 100
  • Conflict-of-interest policy: Pass
  • Whistleblower policy: Pass
  • Document-retention policy: Pass
  • CEO compensation review process: Pass
  • Other executive compensation review process: NotApplicable
  • Form 990 shared with the board: Pass
  • Board meeting minutes documented: Pass
  • Audit committee oversight: Pass
  • Independent financial-statement audit: Pass

Sustainability

• Operating margin: -8.4%; rating input score 19; 19th percentile among comparable filings
• Total-asset coverage ratio: 2.43; rating input score 70; 70th percentile among comparable filings
• Liabilities to assets ratio: 0.21; rating input score 31; 31st percentile among comparable filings
• Officer compensation ratio: 6.2%; rating input score 50; 50th percentile among comparable filings

Growth

• Program expense growth: -5.9% per year; rating input score 0; 7th percentile among comparable filings
• Revenue growth: -4.6% per year; rating input score 0; 6th percentile among comparable filings
• Asset growth: -1.4% per year; rating input score 0; 13th percentile among comparable filings