United Way and BSA

United Way - Please Designate Your Gift to the Boy Scouts
Heart of Florida United Way Code 8009!

Effective July 2001, the Central Florida Council became a "contract organization" instead of a "member agency" of the Heart of Florida United Way (Orange, Osceola and Seminole Counties). The net effect for the Central Florida Council is that we no longer receive an allocation from the pool of non designated funds (which is the majority of the funds United Way raises). In order for us to receive funds from the United Way campaign, donors must specifically designate all or a portion of their gift to the Central Florida Council. Donors can designate corporate as well as personal gifts.

When this change occurred, there was a lot of publicity about the change and our designations were $449,000. It has been our concern all along that we may not be able to sustain the support as people forget and new people move to town. In the past United Way campaign, our designations decreased to $155,006. A decrease impacts programs funded by United Way: Scouting for Food and our outreach to disadvantaged youth. We serve more than 47,000 total youth, of which over 7,000 are boys from at-risk communities, and we collect over 600,000 pounds of food for needy families.

In the Brevard ($54,000), Lake/Sumter ($11,000), and Volusia/Flagler ($38,400) County United Ways, we remain a member agency. In these United Ways we receive both designations and allocations.

We are putting this letter online because many people work in Orange, Osceola or Seminole Counties, but live elsewhere. Anything you can do to help us spread the word in the Heart of Florida United Way area would be very much appreciated.

Sincerely,

Jeff Jennings

Board Chair        

Ron A. Oats
Scout Executive

P.S. Please designate all or a portion of your pledge to the Central Florida Council, Boy Scouts of America - Heart of Florida United Way code 8009.

Click here for a downloadable flyer describing the above.