United Way of Kosciusko County announced Jim Tinkey, of Mutual Federal Savings Bank, is its 2007 Campaign chairman.
Tinkey has been Mutual Federal's vice president of business banking since October 1999. His job is to develop banking and lending relationships with local businesses. Prior to Mutual Federal Savings Bank, Tinkey was in the local banking business with another organization starting when he graduated from college in 1977.
Tinkey said his campaign will be run much like the banking philosophy at MFSB where their slogan is "Go ahead ... Live a Better Life." Tinkey's personal belief is, "What we do for family and community is really what matters in the long run. At our deathbed, no one will be asking 'why didn't you put in more overtime at work?'"
Tinkey is a homegrown professional who has lived in Warsaw all his life. He is a 1973 Warsaw Community High School graduate, and graduated from Valparaiso University in 1977 with a major in business administration and accounting. He and his wife of 19 years, Linda, raised their family in this community.
Linda Tinkey is the public relations director of Kosciusko Literacy Services. The Tinkeys have three children, Elizabeth and fraternal twin sister Jennifer, 15, are sophomores at Warsaw Community High School; and Jamielynn, 12, is a seventh-grader at Edgewood Middle School.
Tinkey is the past president of the Warsaw Kiwanis Club, the current chairman of Kosciusko Development Inc., current treasurer of the Board of Directors for the United Way of Kosciusko County, a finance committee board member of the Kosciusko 21st Century Foundation, and a former board member of the Salvation Army and the Kosciusko County YMCA.
Tinkey's decision to accept the United Way Campaign chair position results from his belief that he has been blessed by, and fortunate to live in this community. Tinkey said we all need to give something back to our community, and he felt led to take this opportunity to help make a difference for those in the community who need help.
Tinkey's ideas for his campaign are to get more people involved with the United Way throughout the community. The more effectively the agency can communicate the advantages of United Way in our community, the better the chance to obtain "buy-in" from them. While the large donors are very much appreciated and needed, Tinkey wants to expand the "grassroots" efforts and explain what United Way means to those who have never before been involved or touched by United Way. To encourage those who have never been a contributor, to contribute even a small gift, would ultimately translate into a huge impact for the community's programs.
Tinkey said, "I have seen this community respond tremendously when the need is effectively communicated. We have a wonderfully generous community. Our challenge is to share with and educate a very diverse audience. The real message we need people to understand about United Way is that it is absolutely the most efficient method of fundraising for social service programs in Kosciusko County. Due to the local United Way's extremely low administration costs and volunteer efforts, we are able to raise substantially more funding for our supported programs, and pass more dollars to the actual people who need it."
Currently, United Way is providing funding for 52 programs in the areas of Youth Development, Family and Community Wellness, Self Sufficiency and Emergency Services.
