United Way falling short of five-year fundraising target

The United Way of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District is falling short of its five-year, $6.25 million fundraising target.

“It’s (currently at) about $4.8 million,” said Gary Vipond, United Way of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District CEO, speaking to SooToday.

“I think part of the reason is that there’s a lot more competition out there for the donor dollars.”

In September 2016, the United Way of Sault Ste. Marie and District officially announced a new approach in its mission to help the disadvantaged in the Sault and area.

In a break from its long-held tradition of holding an annual campaign to raise funds for the needy, the agency announced a longer-term, five-year goal to raise $6,250,000 with an intensified focus on fighting poverty.

The five-year campaign will end March 31, 2021.

“You can say you’ve got to raise $1.2 million a year to reach that target, but our hope was that we would get more money in the first few years and then in the later years we wouldn’t have to have as much of a thrust,” Vipond said.

“(But) what’s been happening is that we’ve been dropping off a little bit each year, and so now, coming into the final year, which will be starting this fall, we find that we’re quite a bit short of where we need to be.”

“In the current year alone I’m projecting we could be up to $200,000 short of where our commitments are for the year,” Vipond said.

While the United Way’s official fiscal year runs from April 1 to March 31, a ‘year’ in terms of United Way campaigning begins in earnest each September.

“We drew on some reserves that we had but we’re getting to the point where we’re running out of that and we don’t have anything behind us to draw on,” Vipond said.

“What happens is we’ve got to make up for any shortfalls in reducing the amount of money we give out. It’s basic economics. If we don’t have the money in, we can’t give it to others, and we run our own programs as well. It’s right across the board. It will affect our own programming as well as others that we support.”

“When our board meets later this month, we’ll have to make some decisions as to what we’re going to do…(but) I personally am not anticipating having any particular organizations not supported at all,” Vipond said.

“It’s the disadvantaged people in the community that will suffer… (the funding shortfall) will impact our ability as a community to offer them resources and services.”

Included among the list of agencies the United Way of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District supports are:

• Harvest Algoma - Food Resource Centre
• John Howard Society
• Ken Brown Recovery Home
• Canadian Hearing Society
• Credit Counselling Service of Sault Ste. Marie and District
• Sault YMCA programs
• Sault Canadian Mental Health Association (CMHA) 
• Women In Crisis (Algoma)
• Breton House

“The message is if there are people who have been thinking about it but haven’t yet made their contribution, we would appreciate them acting on that, and for those that aren’t quite sure and would like more information I’d be happy to talk to anybody that wants to listen,” Vipond said.

“There’s a lot of really good causes, and we certainly understand that... I don’t discredit any of the other organizations, but what we ask is that people understand who we are before they decide whether or not to support us.” 

“That’s our biggest challenge... getting that message out of who we are and what we’re doing,” Vipond said. 

To help get that message out, Vipond said the United Way of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District has an animated YouTube video available for viewing which shows the plight of a woman whose marriage has hit the rocks, is unable to get child support, loses her home, vehicle and job, looking for a suitable apartment for herself and her children and seeking employment while her bill payments pile up.

The video shows how local United Way programs assist the woman by helping her with her bills in the short term, files her income tax return and obtains a disability tax credit for one of her children.

“It’s a really good synopsis of the typical thing that goes on at the United Way,” Vipond said.

Meanwhile, a community outcomes report will be published “in the next week or so” by the United Way, Sault Ste. Marie Innovation Centre (SSMIC), the NORDIK Institute, the City of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma Workforce Investment Corporation, Vipond said.

“We’ve been working on it for about nine months and it will show, on a community wide basis, all the indicators that we’re monitoring and why the issues are important. It’s a 64-page report. It’s quite elaborate, and somebody looking at it can see what role the United Way is playing in achieving its share of these outcomes.”

Vipond said he encourages anyone with a need for more information on the United Way of Sault Ste. Marie and Algoma District to check out its website and/or call the office at (705) 256-7476.