The end of the year is a great time to take advantage of opportunities to give, and  when you contribute by Dec. 31 to United Way for Southeastern Michigan, you aren't just giving money – you are investing in your community.

United Way understands the impact of philanthropic giving on improving communities and helping individuals and families around you. We also know that when it comes to donating your hard-earned dollars, you want to make sure you choose an organization to suit your interests. The five simple guidelines that follow could help you make a wise decision on a philanthropic gift.

View Your Contribution as an Investment.  What you give to an organization should be seen as an investment. You want that investment to make a major impact while also giving you some sense of personal gratification. An investment directed toward a carefully selected group or cause will ensure a more meaningful experience for you.

Do Your Homework.When deciding where to contribute, it is important to gather all the facts. Conducting thorough research prior to giving will help you separate legitimate charities from frauds, as well as reassure you that your donation is truly helping those who need it most. Resources such as the Better Business Bureau, Wise Giving Alliance and GuideStar can help you verify the legitimacy of an organization. To avoid fraudulent charities, make sure the organization you are considering does not engage in any of the following activities:

• Send mail appeals disguised as bills or invoices

• Offer very little or no information on actual day-to-day operations

• Pressure you to give

Understand the Tax Benefits of Giving. An added benefit to supporting an agency or cause in which you believe is that most philanthropic gifts are tax-deductible, but you must have proper documentation when filing your income tax return. New IRS rules require a receipt, or a statement from the charity to which you donate,  for each charitable deduction you claim.  Before, contributors only needed to provide proof of donations of $250 or more. The new rules apply to returns due in April 2008, for the January to December 2007 tax period.

Decide What You Will Give and How Much. A financial donation is the most popular way to give, but there are other ways to help your favorite cause. Many organizations will accept property and goods, as well as your time. There are many giving options, including donating directly online, by mail, through payroll deduction or through a donor-advised fund. Also, find out whether your employer will match your charitable gift, this will help maximize your investment.

Track Your Donations. Once you have made a contribution, compile a list of important dates the organization has meetings and key events scheduled, then mark your calendar and follow up. These events could provide excellent opportunities to see your investment at work. Also, keep track of the dates and amounts of your contributions, as well as payment methods and desired uses for your gift. You should receive a receipt with an acknowledgement of your gift. If you do not, be sure to follow up with the agency. Don’t rely on a cancelled check to count as your receipt.

The United Way for Southeastern Michigan staff gained valuable insight into issues important to the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community at a recent diversity and inclusion event, thanks to the candor of two prominent local supporters.

Fox 2 News reporter and anchor Charles Pugh and Leslie Ann Thompson, executive director of Affirmations Lesbian and Gay Community Center, shared accounts of discrimination and barriers they have faced both personally and professionally as a result of their sexual orientation during a Dec. 13 presentation at UWSEM's headquarters.

United Way is currently developing a comprehensive diversity and inclusion strategy that will support its future work, and part of the process is educating staff about all of the various populations – racial, ethnic, religious and more -- that make up the region.

“It’s amazing that in 2008 that not everyone is welcome at the table,” says Pugh, who has battled racial and anti-gay bias during much of his career. He has used those negative experiences as motivation to continue fighting, as he says, until everyone “is welcome.”

Both Pugh and Thompson admitted struggling with their sexual identities early in life and initially having a tough time once they came out to their families, friends and colleagues.

“I realized I’m going to have to start dealing with some stuff,” says Thompson, who wrestled with her sexual identity until age 34. Years later she credits the support she got from family and her involvement with Affirmations for helping her through that emotional process and becoming the woman she is today.

Pugh figures he spent about nine years dealing with sexuality, and now he helps others work through their issues. He speaks frequently about diversity issues, supports LGBT causes and mentors teens having trouble dealing with their orientations and the accompanying pressures.

Central to his message is the theme that discrimination should not be tolerated in the workplace. He also believes that organizations should not strive to be blind to color or sexual orientation. Instead, he says, employee diversity should be recognized and celebrated.

“It’s like a salad,” Pugh says. There are different ingredients, each unique, each bringing different flavor, and all contributing to the whole.

“It’s not something that’s melted together with no distinction.”

Pugh offered the audience some advice on tactfully asking the question about a co-worker's orientation.

“If you know someone who you think is gay, invite that someone to do something socially, and to bring along their partner,” Pugh says. “What that will do is you will realize we want the same things in our relationship.”

Confronting bias is another major workplace issue, Thompson told attendees.

“The biggest thing you can do is if you overhear other people in your work space making anti-gay comments stand up for us. Just like you would want us to stand up for you or anyone else,” she says.

Thompson eventually became an Affirmations supporter and was tapped to run the Ferndale-based organization eight years ago. Affirmations moved into a brand new, 17,000-square foot facility this spring, which was made possible through United Way project management assistance and capital support.

“We are the first and only LGBT organization ever to get program funding through United Way,” says Thompson. “I credit the Nonprofit Facilities Center (the UWSEM department known as Community Capital Resources). The education process they provided was invaluable.”

In her spare time, Thompson works as a stand-up comedian, with a penchant for entertaining “straight audiences” with LGBT materials.

“I can use it to educate people about stereotypes,” Thompson says. 

Volunteer Spotlight
You can make holiday wishes come true

The year-end holidays are a time to gather with family and friends,  and to reflect on, give thanks for and celebrate the past 12 months' accomplishments.

An increasing number of metro Detroiters are choosing each year to showing appreciation for what they have by giving back to their communities, and this holiday season, United Way for Southeastern is making it easier for residents to do just that. If you count yourself among the group and are looking to volunteer for a service project or simply want to make an in-kind donation, United Way can quickly connect you to an opportunity to make a difference, simply by dialing 2-1-1 or visiting www.uwsem.org.

Want to help a local family facing tough times this season? Participate in the Adopt-A-Family program. Want to help seniors in your area? Volunteer for Meals On Wheels, or to sing Christmas carols at a senior complex. You can find dozens of these types of projects and more through United Way's easy-to-use online database, Volunteer Solutions.

If making a donation is more your style, United Way, FOX 2 and Gardner-White Furniture have just the thing. For the seventh consecutive year, the organizations have teamed up to produce the United Way Wish List, a special edition guide that includes information on local nonprofits' "wishes,"  which are items these agencies need to better serve their clients.

“The Wish List is a great tool for people to use when considering how to give back to the community,” says Maria Williams, United Way's 2-1-1 resource associate, who is responsible for overseeing production of the publication. “It connects individuals, families and small businesses with nonprofits in need and is organized to make the process of donating items easy.”

This year’s book includes 124 nonprofits across Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties, with a variety of requests -- from baby items to office supplies -- that may require donations throughout the year.

Supplies are limited, so get your Wish List today by dialing 2-1-1 or visiting any Gardner-White store. 

Kurt's Corner
A picture is worth 1,000 words
An interactive picture is worth much, much more

United Way for Southeastern Michigan launched the Agenda for Change this year, which targets the areas of educational preparedness, financial stability and basic needs. The Agenda is based on research and focused on outcomes. Our partnerships with funded programs and collaboratives, going forward, will strive to benchmark both individual and community conditions and track success on the plan through a variety of metrics.

The value of understanding the “landscape” through which community (or neighborhood) indicators are screened, and using those same indicators to measure the outcomes of their investments is becoming a priority for funders locally, and across the country. Administrators of neighborhood initiatives, like those funded by the Skillman Foundation, the Knight Foundation or Local Initiatives Support Corporation, known as LISC, need accurate, readily available local data in order to effectively engage community residents on issues so that they can drive necessary change.

UWSEM’S Research Department, in conjunction with partner United Ways in Charleston, S.C., and Tucson, Ariz., have partnered with the Community Information Resource Center at the University of Missouri to create the Community Issues Management, or CIM, Web site. Lifting the collective IQ of a community on pertinent issues begins with service-minded intermediaries that bring a heritage of grounded connections to the residents and institutions at the local and regional level. Outside experts and a multiplicity of programs are not a substitute for trusted, local institutions and professionals with deep roots. United Way welcomes its role as a convenor of these intermediaries across the region. They are looking at ways to utilize CIM and engage people across the region in important community work.

Goal
CIM aims to better connect community resources with interested parties and contacts in various levels of governance. The CIM system is the catalyst for effectively engaging intermediaries in an open, transparent and collaborative effort. Utilizing the place-based knowledge these experts have, CIM will ultimately help policymakers decide where to allocate key resources by identifying service gaps or overlaps, and better aligning already scarce funding with growing state, regional and local needs.

What is CIM?
The CIM system provides a mechanism for engaging stakeholders in identifying, analyzing and prioritizing issues that impact their community and region. This collaboration is comprised of an engaged learning community and unique Internet-based decision support tools, such as:

• Interactive mapping
• Dynamic reporting
• Social networking
• Geographic networking
• Animations
• Trends over time

These tools include a suite of applications that enable decision makers to conduct place-based analyses and generate maps and dynamic reports.

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The CIM system is built within a national-level Internet-based GIS framework that enables intermediaries across the country to add community-specific data and overlay their data with state and national datasets. The collaboration involves integrating health and human services data with other federal, state and local data (i.e., socio-economic, demographic, jurisdictional, political, environmental, and infrastructure data) to: (1) geographically visualize community, regional, and national-level data via the Internet; (2) integrate new spatial data and overlay these data to conduct location-specific analyses; and (3) generate maps, dynamic reports, and “what if” scenarios that utilize the integrated nature of these information systems.

Issues Management

The term “Community Issues Management” (CIM) is defined as the Deliberation Technology process used to align community resources with people and place.

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Community decision makers may identify gaps in service provision and barriers to providing services; and policy makers could assess the impact of the allocation of resources on the quality, access, and use of services. This combination permits an assessment of the quality of services available to vulnerable populations, while informing the allocation of community resources.

For example, a user can select health data or census data on age, race, and income and overlay it with local data, such as service provider locations and their service delivery areas to determine the level and impact of gaps or overlap in provision.

The Community Issues Management System:

• Enables community intermediaries to use the Intranet portal to make informed internal organizational decisions regarding community issues, access to services, regional impact, allocation of resources, spatial equity, etc.
• Provides a publicly accessible Internet portal for educating and mobilizing change agents and the broader community around specific priority issues, proposed strategies and measures of community impact.
• Establishes data sharing arrangements for ongoing and up-to-date access to national, state and local datasets.

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CIM has been scaled to accommodate a national platform for engaging public and nonprofit organizations around a more comprehensive understanding of their community and region. CIM collaborators will integrate their regional health and human service data with regional economic, education, transportation and even environmental data, for the first time in many of these localities. These local characteristics will then be integrated with over 500 national data sets available in the CIRC data warehouse in order to understand the local community story in a national context.

CIM Data Themes (over 500 GIS layers)

* Themes that are available only at the “Regional Community” level


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How is CIM relevant to community-based decision making?
Historically, community-based decision making and public policy analysis have most often been conducted in a sector-specific, rather than integrated fashion. Today, nonprofit and public sector organizations are increasingly using geographic information technologies to examine the place-based impacts of public policies, and many state and federal agencies have established Internet-based data warehouses or geospatial portals for accessing data. However, most of these initiatives focus only on sector data access and download, rather than decision support. Furthermore, most organizations lack the time, expertise or technological infrastructure required to: (1) download data from warehouses, (2) import this data into an information system, and (3) develop new interfaces for conducting “what if” scenario analyses.

Community Issues Management transcends agency-specific data repositories and warehouses and enables decision makers to focus on the deliberation process of aligning community resources with people and place.

We want you to join us on our journey. Visit our Web site - www.cim-network.org - and register (it is free and painless). Take a look around and see what you find. We are in the early stages and information is being added every week. We want this to be seen as a resource for the entire tri-county community and we want the community to assist us in its development. Technology such as this is just the tool. It is up to those of us in the community, endeavoring to make change, to understand how best to use this tool.

We would be happy to visit you to demonstrate the system and help you better understand how you would like to use it in your work. Please join us on this journey by contacting:

Kurt Metzger
313-226-9270
kurt.metzger@LiveUnitedSEM.org

Take Action Now
Safely surviving winter's freeze

The coming winter months will likely bring icy roads, downed power lines and imposing snow drifts and if you live in Southeastern Michigan, contending with consequences of the frost and wind can help you avoid dangerous emergencies or disasters.

"Every family and business should be ready for the unexpected throughout the year," says Lynn Pharr, director of crisis preparedness, response and recovery for United Way of America. "Now is the time for many of us to focus on cold weather, power outages, winter fire safety and snowstorms."

By following a few simple steps you and your family can prepare to address potential disasters appropriately. You will need:

• An emergency supply kit that includes, among other things, essential items that will last at least three days, like a battery powered radio (with extra batteries), food and water, flashlights, a first aid kit, blankets and medications.
• A communication plan that covers includes foreseeable hazards in your area and a safety plan for your familiy during an actual emergency. The plan should include a neutral meeting place, in case your family is displaced from the home. Also, designate an out-of-town friend or relative as a contact person and plan for the specific household needs, such as an evacuation shelter for pets or transportation for necessary medical equipment.
• Access to the most up-to-date information from area emergency officials before, during and after a disaster -- it's critical. Local media will communicate instructions from local, state and federal government partners, including any evacuation details and safety tips, and issue an alert once the emergency has passed.

Winter fire safety tips:

• Plug space heaters directly into wall sockets and keep them at least three feet from other objects. Do not leave them unattended.
• Install a smoke detector in every bedroom and one on every level of your home. Check the batteries monthly and replace them annually.
• Clean out dryer vents and be sure they are not blocked.
• If you lose power for a prolonged time period, find some place else to stay rather than using a gas stove or other  unconventional heating method.
• For detailed winter fire safety tips, go to FEMA winter safety tips.

Additional winter tips:

• Make sure that outdoor pets have adequate shelter, water they can drink and food.
• Driving is most dangerous when the temperature is at or under 32 degrees. If the road is wet, ice is likely to form, especially on bridges, ramps and overpasses.
• Even when roads have been treated with salt or sand, drivers should reduce speed and leave a safe driving distance between themselves and other vehicles.
• For special safety tips regarding children’s winter activities, click here.

Learn more:

United Way's 2-1-1
www.uwsem.org/211

By dialing 2-1-1, you can get access to resources that will allow you to save money and stay warm this winter, including utility assistance.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/ National Weather Service
weather.noaa.gov.

Information about weather forecasts and warnings for all states.

Michigan Prepares
www.michigan.gov/michiganprepares

Michigan's new Web site for individual and family emergency preparedness.

Wayne Country emergency alerts
wayne.getalerts.org

Wayne County's new free emergency alerts Web site. A simple and secure registration process enables county citizens and those working in Wayne County to receive emergency alerts on their mobile devices, work and home phones, text messages or e-mail. The emergency alert system allows users to better perpare and protect themselves, their familes and their neighbors.

Oakland County Emergency Response and Preparedness
www.oakgov.com/erp/

Macomb County Emergency Management
www.macombcountymi.gov/OEM