BRYAN, Texas (KBTX) – United Way of the Brazos Valley is doing a lot to help the community, but now KBTX is highlighting how to help them, both through donations and volunteering. Alison Prince, President and CEO of United Way, joined First News at Four to learn more about the organization and where the donated money is going.

“We look at community-wide needs and identify what our community’s greatest needs are, and then deploy resources for those,” Prince explained.

Many of these distributed resources are funds that are donated by donors through the community. Donations are made to the more than two dozen nonprofits United Way works with, as well as some internal programs they run.

Prince explained the benefit of donating to United Way, saying, “When you donate directly to a nonprofit, you are supporting that mission. When you donate to Centraide, you not only support Centraide, but 26 different missions.

United Way works collaboratively with these nonprofits, sitting around a virtual table once a month and discussing the issues they face.

Every couple of years they open up the application process to more nonprofits for help, and while the process isn’t easy, it’s very rewarding to be chosen.

“When an organization is funded by us, they have two years of sustainable funding they can count on every month,” Prince explained.

Besides donating, people can help by volunteering in programs such as Ride 2 Health. This new in-house program was created to provide transportation to get people to non-emergency medical appointments.

“It’s just the idea, kind of like a volunteer Uber that needs volunteers willing to take people to their medical appointments,” Prince said.

Still in its pilot phase, Ride 2 Health needs more volunteers before it can launch community-wide.

Watch the full interview in the player above.

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