We Care Establishes Endowment to Provide Emergency Assistance
We Care—Corvallis Council of Religious Organizations, Inc., was established on June 13, 1983. It was created by several religious organizations in Corvallis that wanted to help needy individuals by pooling resources. Lloyd V. Swanson, Robert W. Burtner, Robert Hardman, and Barbara Quatrano were elected as the first board of directors. The organization was recognized as a nonprofit entity by the IRS shortly after its incorporation.
In the early years, the organization worked closely with the Benton County Department of Human Services and United Way. More recently, it works in partnership with Community Services Consortium (CSC) to provide financial help to families and individuals in Benton County who need one-time, short-term assistance on an emergency basis.
Funds to support We Care come from local churches, individuals, and businesses. The organization has minimal overhead, and more than 99 percent of funds collected go directly to help people in need. Assistance checks are not made out to the person seeking aid, but to the entity to which they owe money, such as a landlord, utility company, or medical provider. CSC pre-screens We Care applicants, ensuring that the applicant meets We Care’s criteria. Requests to We Care are usually a last resort, with requests for help going to other community service organizations first. The CSC representative takes the applications to the all-volunteer, five-member We Care board of directors, which meets weekly throughout the year to make decisions about who to help.
Although the board receives detailed information about each applicant’s situation, the applicant remains anonymous to the board. Considerations include the number of people affected (taking children and other dependents into account), urgency, and whether one applicant is more sustainable than another. For example, in determining urgency, if a family is about to be evicted and a single person is a week late with the rent, the family facing eviction is more likely to get help. From the perspective of sustainability, if someone has a job and can pay rent, but has no money for move-in costs, that person would be more likely to receive help than someone with no ongoing means of support. Although rare exceptions have been made, We Care policy is to help an individual only once.
Anyone can donate to We Care, either to the on-going budget or to the endowment, and becoming a supporting member is fairly easy. The only stipulation is that members commit to regular We Care donations, have a representative attend the membership meetings (three are held each year), and elect members to the board of directors. The board is elected by representatives attending the membership meetings.
In 2007, a person wishing to remain anonymous approached the We Care board with a generous donation, and requested that the money go to establish an endowment. Once the word got out, four other people made donations, providing a nest egg to establish the fund. We Care decided that because the organization supports Benton County residents, it made sense to place it with the Benton County Foundation. Funds will go to the endowment only by direct request; all other funds go to provide weekly support for applicants. Anyone can contribute to the fund through the foundation.
As of October 2008, religious organizations supporting We Care included Beit Am Jewish Community, Church of the Good Samaritan (Episcopal), College United Methodist Church, Baha’i Communities of Corvallis and Philomath, Corvallis Mennonite Fellowship, First Baptist Church, First Christian Church (Disciples), First Congregational United Church of Christ, First Presbyterian Church, First United Methodist Church, Grace Lutheran Church, Kings Circle Assembly of God, Knollbrook Christian Reformed Church, Northwest Hills Community Church, Peace Lutheran, Religious Society of Friends, St. Mary’s Catholic Church, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship, and St. Vincent De Paul Society.