The United Way of Central New York is being forced to make significant cutbacks in funding for local community agencies.
United Way Board Chairman Ryan Benz said the agency faces more than a million dollar funding gap, and that’s forcing drastic cuts to agencies.
"Now that our most recent three-year allocation has come to a conclusion, the organization, the Board of Directors, thought it appropriate to right-size the amount that we're giving out this year to the amount that we've collected," said Benz. "And, unfortunately, there's a large disparity between the need in the community and the amount that we can give out."
That means reductions of hundreds of thousands of dollars to agencies like the Salvation Army and Catholic Charities of Onondaga County. Giving to the United Way has fallen by an average of 11% per year over the last five years.
"Many of our neighbors and many of our community members are struggling," said Carrie Large, CEO of the United Way of Central New York. "The cost of living has gone up and so giving that dollar per paycheck is tough. We appreciate every bit that we get and we will continue to go out there and ask for support from the folks that can do it and then support those folks that can't too. I mean, that's why our nonprofits are so important right now. They're there helping and supporting our community members."
Large said the many nonprofit organizations are struggling right now.
"I don't even think it's just United Ways in general. I think it's all nonprofits throughout the country even, that are struggling with fundraising and philanthropy," she said. "The need is greater."
Benz said it doesn’t mean the United Way is in trouble.
"It's that the community is, not to say in trouble, but there's more need in the community now than we've been able to fund," he said. "So the model itself is sustainable. We just need to continue focusing on increasing our revenues so we can make that impact across the community."
Benz estimates the number of agencies the United Way is funding has been cut in half.
