Area United Way donations drop off

Contributions to the local United Way are down more than 10 percent from last year and that could force charity officials to cut back grants and services to the region’s needy.
Officials say the shortage in funds is likely caused by the region’s economic malaise, which has resulted in layoffs, furloughs and cutbacks of company and family budgets over the past year.
The United Way — Thomas Jefferson Way Area campaign in 2009 received approximately $1.5 million in contributions from local residents, business and corporate employees. The figure was about the same in the 2008 campaign period, according to charity figures, but this fiscal year’s total so far has only reached $1.34 million, a 10.6 percent drop.

“It’s been a hard two years and people are seeing their resources stretched more and more,” said Cathy Train, the local United Way’s president. “People have less security in their daily lives and less security to make charitable contributions.”
Dan Goodall, an executive with Virginia National Bank and the United Way’s campaign chairman, said cuts at local corporations decreased the amount of payroll-deducted contributions that normally come from corporate campaigns. Other employers opened their fundraising campaign to numerous charities and that may have diluted the United Way’s proportion of paycheck payouts, he said.
“We still have programs that we need to support and people who need that support, so we just have to find another way to do it,” Goodall said. “The good news is that Charlottesville has a ton of very generous individuals who give outside of the corporate campaigns and regularly contribute. We’re likely to focus our efforts in that arena.”

The United Way — Thomas Jefferson Area distributes collected funds to support specific programs operated by local agencies. The programs are chosen by their efficacy and the community’s perceived needs. A review committee of local residents and volunteers researches programs before the charity gives grants.
Among agencies often receiving multiple grants are the Monticello Area Community Action Agency, the Salvation Army and Children, Youth and Family Services. The United Way funds particular programs in the agencies, rather than just the agencies themselves.
In recent years, the United Way has begun to provide direct services to clients, said Margery Daniel, chairwoman of the United Way’s board of directors.

Among those services are: a prescription assistance program to help working families without medical insurance or with insufficient insurance; tax assistance for low-income families, especially those that qualify for earned income tax credits; and childcare scholarships for working families.
“People think of us as an organization that gives money away, and we do that, but we’re looking all the time at what is needed in the community and responding to it,” Daniel said. “We’re always trying to make sure that we’re directing funds where they are really needed.”

Train said the charity will make a last-minute push to bring the contribution level up to last year, if possible. That may not be easy, she noted, because some former contributors have lost jobs in the past year.
“We know of some people who have contributed for a long time and last year found themselves without jobs and some even became clients,” she said. “It’s something that makes you think about how many people have been affected by the economy and how quickly things can turn.”