The United Way of Prince Edward County has met and exceeded its goal to raise $45,000 this year.

The group has raised approximately $48,000 with time through the end of June for more donations. This is an $11,000 increase from the final money raised last year.

Rucker Snead, the president of United Way’s Board of Directors, said, “I’m ecstatic. We set a goal of $45,000, trying to raise a year or so ago, but we weren’t able to meet it, so this is the first time meeting a goal this much for as long as I can remember.”

“Just as a point of comparison, last year we were able to give out $36,750. So this year is a significant increase. We’re very proud of the way the donors and the students are stepping up the nonprofits in our community,” said Snead.

“The campaigns are based on a fiscal year. They run July 1 to June 30, so we still anticipate a few more dollars coming in before the end of June. I just don’t know how much,” he said.

According to Snead, $30,000 was allocated to partner nonprofits in January, and at least $15,000 will be allocated in June.

“The group will make its second round of allocations to its member organizations on Wednesday, June 22, in the Centra Conference Room. The specific amounts to be distributed to each group will be decided before the meeting,” said Jamie C. Ruff, a member of the United Way Board of Directors.

The allocations will go to United Way’s 20  community partners, including Boys and Girl Scouts, FACES, Heartland Horse Heroes, Madeline’s House, Habitat for Humanity, Meals on Wheels and Prince Edward County 4-H.

Snead said, “Traditionally we give usually at least 93 percent of what we’ve raised to our partners each year.”

He emphasized that the organization tries to give as much money that they raise back to the community as possible.

“Centra has been a major help and supporter over the years … And then we also get corporate donations from some of the larger corporate organizations, such as UPS, Walmart, FedEx, Belk as part of their annual campaign. We get a lot of money from a lot of different places. We pull it together and our goal is to push as much of it back to the community as possible,” said Snead.

Snead also mentioned the support of Longwood and Hampden- Sydney.

“We definitely want to get more students involved and in terms of helping us raise money.” Snead said this year, “Hampden-Sydney was a success story. Students out here raised over $9,000.”

“We’re working on (plans for next campaign) now. We will try to build on our success from this year. We’ve reached out to Longwood and we’ll see if we can’t get a little competition going between Longwood and Hampden-Sydney,” said Snead.

According to Snead, next year’s goal will be at least $45,000, if not higher.

Donations can range from a few thousand dollars to a few dollars, and come from organizations, companies, individuals and various other entities. 

For more information on Prince Edward’s United Way or to donate, visit www.uwprinceedward.org, write to Prince Edward United Way, P.O. Box 122, Farmville, Va., 23901 or call (434) 223-6260.