The Butler County United Way (BCUW) has fundraised its way to allocating nearly $1.5 million to 47 local social services programs despite a $500,000 shortfall in fundraising that threatened to make funding impossible.
According to Stephanie Raker, executive assistant to the president of BCUW, BCUW made cuts to its own budget while launching another fundraising campaign to make ends meet. The "Campaign for Hope," which ran from January to March, raised $150,000 with the help of the Butler County Sheriff's Office and several corporate sponsors.
"The sheriff challenged the community to give what they could," Raker said. "He drove home for everyone that we really need these programs."
Raker said fundraising was especially difficult in the current economic conditions.
"We found that people who have donated in the past are now in need of help themselves," Raker said.
BCUW gave Support to Encourage Low-Income Families (SELF) $46,080 to use for three of their programs - aid to the homeless, financial literacy education and an umbrella program to help families in need. SELF community relations coordinator Kim Weigel said SELF has partnered with United Way for approximately seven years, and attributed the continued relationship to SELF's demonstrable results.
"A major part of getting any grant is having ou comes, reaching goals," Wiegel said.
According to Wiegel, the family aid program is currently serving 31 families, and the homeless aid and financial literacy programs are helping several dozen individuals.
The Catholic Charities of Southwestern Ohio received more than $170,000 for two of their programs providing sexual abuse treatment as well as counseling and outpatient mental health services.
Shelly Wallpe, regional director of the Catholic Charities Hamilton facility, said BCUW dollars provide treatment for more than 450 people a year.
"Those funds are what allow us to provide our services to the public at a sliding scale fee," Wallpe said.
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The sliding scale fee enables low-income families and people without insurance to receive treatment they otherwise would not be able to afford, Wallpe said.
Unlike most programs, the Catholic Charities counseling programs, which have partnered with BCUW for more than 30 years, are considered for reallocation every three years instead of annually. Wallpe said Catholic Charities has been able to consistently achieve outcomes to satisfy BCUW's interest in being "good stewards of donors' dollars."
The process for choosing which programs to fund consists of a review of program proposals by a volunteer committee, Raker said. Most programs are reallocated every year based on projected needs and past successes. While some programs were facing cuts following the fundraising shortfall, the internal BCUW cuts and the Campaign for Hope enabled many successful programs to receive a 2 percent increase in funding.
Raker said BCUW will have to "find new companies to connect with and new ways to connect with the community" in order to meet future fundraising goals in the current economic climate.
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