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A woman at church told Nancy Fisher about a place where she could take her husband, who suffers a short attention span after an aneurysm at 57, that would provide care and camaraderie for him and a respite for her.

The Adult Center for Enrichment offers the service. It is one of 28 programs awarded money this year through the United Way of Greater Greensboro through a process that ties funding to efficiency.

“When he’s home with me, he sleeps. If I ask him to do something, it’s hard for him to remember anything more than a one-step command,” Fisher said of taking her husband, Bill, to the nonprofit’s group respite program site at First Baptist Church.

What’s gratifying to Fisher and others is that the United Way was able to invest more than $7 million in such community-based programs.

“It’s been great for him because he’s a people person and everybody there just loves him,” Fisher said. “One of the maintenance men at the Baptist church … gave him a book about Dan Marino for his birthday and he and Tyrone (the maintenance man) go back and forth about the Miami Dolphins. He knows there’s something wrong with him, but it’s a place where he can go and feel good about himself.”

The United Way was also able to invest more than $1 million in community initiatives and a project it led locally this past winter to provide emergency food and shelter.

“We are just very grateful and we are very fortunate in Greensboro that we have such a caring and committed community,” said Chip Cromartie, the adult services agency’s executive director.

Leaders at the United Way say in this tough economy, especially, allocations are based on how efficiently an agency has used its United Way dollars the previous year.

Trained volunteers have spent hundreds of hours reviewing programs and funding requests, according to Otis Wilson, chairman of the United Way’s Community Investment Council.

With a “commendable” rating, a group receives the previous year’s allocation, plus 50 percent of any requested increase. “Satisfactory” programs receive 95 percent of the previous year’s allocation, and “limited” programs receive 80 percent of the previous year’s allocations.

The United Way declined to release which programs received satisfactory or limited ratings.

“We have to challenge all our programs to be the best in the community,” said Executive Director Keith Barsuhn.

At Communities in School, which got a commendable rating, 98 percent of the student participants at Smith and Dudley high schools remained in school this past year — with 100 percent of eligible students graduating with a high school diploma.

Other programs with commendable ratings from the past year include Hospice and Palliative Care of Greensboro’s Kid Path program; Family Service of the Piedmont’s Outpatient Family Counseling; and the Bell House.

Contact Nancy McLaughlin at 373-7049 or nancy.mclaughlin@news-record.com