United Way of the Cape Fear Area celebrated the results of its 2014 campaign at an event this week, announcing a total of $2.2 million in contributions.

Of that total, $300,000 is earmarked for new grants this year in the agency’s Community Impact Investment area of education. Grant requests in this area totaled $1.2 million, said Chris Nelson, United Way of the Cape Fear Area’s CEO.

So, one day after celebrating the results at its Wednesday event, it was back to business Thursday for the funding agency as it met with its investment team to determine which grant requests would be funded, and for how much, said Emily Watkins, United Way’s director of corporate development.

Nelson explained that, because grant request amounts always exceed the amount of money available, recipients of United Way grants have “learned to go to other funders” for additional monies. Those other granting organizations, he said, “know that [grant recipients] have been through a pretty thorough review from us. It’s like getting the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval.”

Another $600,000 of 2014 campaign funds will be spent on second- and third-year grants in the other two community impact areas:  financial stability and health, he said. United Way now awards three-year grants, focusing on one impact area each year. Three-year grants give recipient agencies a larger measure of programmatic stability and allow them to measure impact over a longer period of time, Nelson explained.

More than $500,000 raised in the campaign is designated by the donors for a particular organization. Of that amount, nearly $50,000 in donor designations is for organizations included in community impact grant programs, so that money is included in those grants, according to Nelson.

But that leaves roughly $450,000 in gifts that are outside the community impact grant process and specified for a total of 98 agencies.

Less than 10 percent of campaign proceeds go toward United Way administrative expenses, Nelson said. The agency does, however, perform “back office” functions for companion programs such as Hometown Hires, Blue Ribbon Commission, the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness, the federal Senior Community Service Employment Program and various homeless shelter programs, for which it is paid a small percentage of those organizations’ funds.

As demand for social services has grown in recent years, it has been increasingly necessary for local agencies to collaborate in providing complementary aspects of those services and sharing resources – and funding, Watson said. She cited the example of the Wilmington Agencies United for Youth, an initiative made up of Brigade Boys and Girls Club, DREAMS, Kids Making It and Communities in Schools Cape Fear, all of whom work together to help youngsters become successful.

The sense of teamwork among those agencies has grown so strong over the last few years, she said, that when their representatives came to present their grant proposal before United Way’s investment team, “It was like watching a family.”

At Wednesday’s event, United Way recognized its 2014 campaign award winners. Duke Energy won the Spirit of Cape Fear Award in recognition of the significant increase in its workplace donations, according to an announcement from United Way. In the past two years, Duke Energy’s workplace campaign donations have risen from $128,000 to $311,000, making it the second-largest United Way workplace campaign in the Cape Fear area, behind GE.

Campaign Excellence awards went to Duke Energy (large company category), UPS (mid-size company), Piedmont Natural Gas (small company), City of Wilmington (public/government agency) and New Hope Clinic (nonprofit).

The top 10 campaigns of the year were – in declining amount of funds raised: GE Wilmington, Duke Energy, PPD, Corning Inc., Wells Fargo, Enterprise Holdings, International Paper, New Hanover Regional Medical Center, New Hanover County and New Hanover County Schools.