Why Program Review matters to my agency
By Bryan Moffitt, Family Counseling Services
As the director of one of United Way’s Community Partners, I have learned how vital Program Review is to our agencies. The process gives an agency a centralized opportunity to organize its accountability standards and show excellence in nonprofit quality of operation. Donors and funders of all types always want to know that their dollars are utilized in the best way possible. At Family Counseling Services, Program Review gives our organization the chance to prove that, and over the years, the process has helped improve our program delivery. We also walk away from the process with a foundation of materials already prepared that can be used to prove our effectiveness elsewhere.
Because United Way has been partnering with nonprofits for decades, its review processes are efficient in identifying excellence in nonprofit service delivery. When other entities look at partnering with us for service delivery or funding, they can immediately know that our agency meets a very high standard of excellence because of our involvement with United Way.
As a bonus two different areas of expertise for grant mentorship involvement. We had one person with specific mentorship experience inside the organization but needed another person with localized experience, through Program Review our organization has had the opportunity to broaden our networks within the community. Recently, our team was working on a grant application requiring outside of our agency. Because of relationships built during Program Review, we were able to obtain that expertise with a phone call. Without that resource, we would not have qualified. The funder is excited that we were able to pull together different resources in our community to be able to apply, and fingers-crossed, we’ll be hearing that we’ve received the grant soon.
Program Review has improved Family Counseling Service in so many ways, and I am grateful to United Way and the volunteers who participate.
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