For Immediate Release October 14, 2005

For More Information Contact: Rich Schneider, 317-278-4564 rcschnei@iupui.edu

United Way Offers Contributors a Deal that is too Good to Pass By

INDIANAPOLIS - As far as Dr. Thomas Inui is concerned, United Way offers contributors a deal that is too good to pass by.

United Way of Central Indiana knows where the needs of the community are greatest, keeps a close watch on the programs it supports, and puts 90 cents of every dollar contributed to work helping those who are most needy and vulnerable, said Inui, president and chief executive officer of Regenstrief Institute and associate dean for health services research for the IU School of Medicine.

The IUPUI United Way Campaign is off to a successful start and has raised $60,000 of its $335,000 campaign goal. The campaign continues through October 28.

"My wife and I have been United Way contributors annually over decades," Inui said. "We do so because we believe United Way is both an efficient and powerful way to support the most needy and vulnerable in the community in which we live."

Inui's belief in United Way comes first-hand from working as a volunteer physician at a day shelter in Indianapolis where he is able to watch what United Way funded services are able to accomplish.

"The fact is that United Way is critically important to a wide array of organizations that I see work at the shelter every week," he said. "These United Way funded organizations provide resources and programs that are used to resurrect people from the awful circumstances they have fallen into that have made them homeless, jobless, and extraordinarily vulnerable."

"United Way does a remarkably good job of vetting the programs and looking at the many needs that could be served with community foundation funds,"Inui noted. "I don't have the time or the expertise to do that kind of thorogoing analysis, but United Way staff does. They do the analyses, track programs over the years, and know what the most important use of our contributions might be. We give to the general fund because I want them to have flexibility to use our contribution in a way that is most urgent in a given year."

Hurricane Katrina is a case in point that demonstrates why annual giving to United Way is important, Inui said. "When the weather rips the roof off a city, it reveals the vulnerable and the need to be continuously at work to create supportive infrastructure for the most vulnerable in our society. Contributing annually to United Way is a great way to do just that."

Make your pledge online by going to the IUPUI United Way website at www.iupui.edu/~uwaycamp.

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