Help Us Get to an Important $3.5 Million Goal
Three and a half million dollars is what our community campaign is trying to raise this year, and I want to tell you where that number came from. It’s not always spreadsheets over here!
It came from asking. This summer, our team went to the nonprofits we fund with one question: how are you really doing? Twenty-four of them answered, and these are the organizations feeding families, sheltering people, running child care, and answering crisis calls across Berrien, Cass, and Van Buren counties. Two out of three told us demand is climbing, more than half are dealing with reduced or uncertain federal & state funding while their operating costs keep rising, and only one in three described their organization as stable and positioned to grow.
What stuck with our team is that most of them are still delivering anyway, half of them better than they were two years ago, but they're doing it with almost no margin left for error, and the requests coming to us keep getting bigger.
You don't have to look far to understand why. Nearly 4 in 10 households across our three counties cannot afford the basics, which works out to 44,685 families, and, besides retired seniors, most of those people are working for a living. They're ringing up your groceries and caring for your parents, earning too much to qualify for most assistance and too little to ever get ahead, and only about a third of them have enough set aside to survive three months if the car dies or the hours get cut.
The need in front of us isn't shrinking, and we'd rather aim at what our community actually needs and fall a little short than hit a smaller number and call it a success.
The encouraging news is that our community has already started proving it can be done. We brought back our Pacesetter program this year, where a handful of organizations run their campaigns first to set the tone for everyone else, and five stepped up: United Federal Credit Union, Vail Rubber Works, Mid-West Family Marketing & Media, St. Joseph Public Schools, and our own United Way staff. Together they raised 47% more than that same group raised a year ago, with 140 people giving this time compared to 103 last year, which is 37 more neighbors deciding to be part of this.
Workplace campaigns are still the backbone of everything we do, and most of what we raise comes from people giving a little at a time out of their paychecks. If your employer runs a United Way campaign this fall, I hope you'll participate, and I hope you'll ask where your gift goes, because we're glad to tell you: programs at more than 40 local agencies, the 2-1-1 hotline that answers calls around the clock, the Volunteer United program (responsible for major events like Rake a Difference), and free tax preparation through VITA that puts more than $1 million back into local pockets every year. Last year, United Way and our partners affected over 207,700 people across our three counties.
If your workplace doesn't run a campaign, our team would love to help you change that, and it costs your company nothing but a little coordination because we handle most of the work. Start at uwsm.org/hold-a-fundraiser or email me at [email protected], and know that some of the best campaigns in our region began with one employee who simply asked.
If you don't have a campaign to join, you can still be part of this at DonateToUnitedWay.com or by texting UnitedIsTheWay to 41444. Donating just fifteen dollars a month adds up to $180 by the end of the year, enough for four nights of shelter and meals for a neighbor without a home, or backpacks full of school supplies for six kids.
Our nonprofits told us they're still showing up for this community every single day with almost nothing left in the tank, and this fall is our chance to show up for them the same way.
