For the organizers of Ithaca College’s United Way Stone Soup Philanthropy Corps, directing individual donations to organizations poses a daunting task. But like the tale of villagers combining their food to make a stew, they seek to pool and distribute charitable donations to those in need.

The idea for the Corps was developed by James Brown, president of United Way of Tompkins County, and Deb Mohlenhoff, assistant director of community service and leadership development at the college. Mohlenhoff will determine the best way to use student involvement in philanthropy. Brown brought the idea for the Corps to Mohlenhoff in September.

“Ithaca College students do a great deal to support local organizations and provide services and assist in providing services, and we were thinking of a way we could capture that energy and direct it toward a specific community and identify community problems,” he said.

Kirsty Ewing, a freshman integrated marketing communications major; Jackie Simone, a freshman journalism major; and Mykal Urbina, a freshman integrated marketing communications major, heard about the program at an involvement fair. Since they already knew Mohlenhoff, they decided to get involved and become the club’s founding members.

“A lot of times when college students volunteer, it’s pull some weeds or do some gardening and build some houses, which is great, it’s incredible, Ewing said. “But rarely is it ‘Let’s go allocate some serious dollars.”

The three are the only student members of the organization, but they hope to form a 12-member executive board. They held a meeting last Tuesday to recruit new members. A leadership retreat to train the new board members will be held before the end of the semester.

Ewing said these past two semesters were “organization semesters” dedicated to figuring out how the organization would begin.

“Next semester is when we will kick it off campus-wide and start up our campus publicity and start making community collections,” she said.

There will be three sections of the board: one for spreading publicity on campus, another for meeting with organizations to inform them about requesting grants and one for management. In order to qualify for funds, organizations must submit Community Impact Statements to the Corps describing what they hope to accomplish with the money they are granted. At a retreat the group has planned for the Spring, the Corps will donate funds to the organizations they select.

Mohlenhoff said this process would help the Corps distribute money to those who would use it most effectively, adding that she often receives calls from organizations that want to hold benefits but do not know whom to support.

“It’s sort of an awkward conversation to have with them, ‘I don’t know what your mission is or who you want to support, and I don’t feel comfortable saying you should give it to that person as opposed to that person,’” she said.

Brown said the limited funds would have to be allocated to serve the greatest needs in the community.

“It’s a challenging process; it’s not easy, but it’s positive, and the difficulty would be that you can’t provide the resources to meet the needs that all the people in the county require to improve the quality of their lives.”

Emma Hileman, a freshman environmental studies major, attended the recruitment meeting after being invited by the founding members and is planning on joining to become involved in the Ithaca community. She said she hopes the organization will eventually grow.

“I really think it’s a great opportunity pilot program for the United Way, and I hope it works so that we can set up other programs with the United Way on other college campuses,” Hileman said.

Brown said the Corps would involve students in addressing the problems in their community, and he hopes the program will be replicated at other colleges.

“The fact that we have three institutions here that have the potential to link up, that is really powerful, so I think the local ramifications are really positive, as well as the possibility for expansion for other campuses,” he said.

Brown said Ithaca has many talented young people from Ithaca College, Cornell University and Tompkins Cortland Community College, and the Corps will be able to take advantage of their different perspectives.

“I think we, United Way, make a difference in the community, but we work within the lines that we’re familiar,” Brown said. “What I believe the college students will do is they will expand our vision and our thinking in what is important on how to make a difference.”