United Way Closing In on $95-Million Goal for 1990

With less than two weeks remaining in its annual fund-raising campaign, United Way of Los Angeles has raised $80 million of its $95-million goal.

Donations have been running 5% ahead of last year’s pace, a campaign that raised a record $88.3 million, campaign officials said. They predicted that this year’s campaign, which raises money for 360 social service and health organizations in the region, will break that record.

“The finish is the toughest part of any race, but we are reasonably optimistic that we can get it,” said James Miscoll, Bank of America executive vice president, who is campaign chairman.

Fund-raising efforts are just getting under way among some of the traditional large donors, including financial institutions, aerospace firms and major retailers. If the goal is reached by the March 29 deadline, it will be only the third time in 20 years that the campaign has achieved its goal. The last time was five years ago.

According to campaign officials, corporate giving is up 6%. Employee contributions, which usually represent about two-thirds of campaign receipts, increased 8%. United Way, which has been operating under new leadership, has undergone major organizational changes in the last two years. Chief among these is its expansion into new areas of fund raising.

Traditionally, the umbrella charity has looked to the workplace for most of its contributions, with the largest companies and their employees providing most of the donations. However, in recent years, economic conditions, company mergers and consolidations and labor problems have eroded that donor base.

This year, United Way continued a strategy begun in 1989 of targeting smaller companies and professional groups, including hospitals and universities, the entertainment industry and the ethnic business community. Officials said they initiated United Way campaigns in nearly 5,000 new businesses in the last two years, 2,700 of them during this campaign. The most dramatic change has been the board of directors’ decision to discontinue setting aside a “reserve fund.” In recent years, the fund had been used to bail out campaigns that fell short of their goal, said Leo Cornelius, United Way’s executive director.

Traditionally, he said, money was allocated to the agencies before the money was raised. The fund-raising goal was set based on these projections, often resulting in shortfalls for the agencies. Now, Cornelius said, the campaign will be conducted before the money is allocated.

“We are going to cut the cloth to fit the pattern,” Cornelius said. “We’ll only spend what money we have to spend, and that is good fiscal management.”

Campaign volunteers doubled to 1,700 during the last two years, officials said, including an increase in the number of executives “loaned” to United Way by companies to do staff work during the campaign.

Giving by Los Angeles county government employees reached $1,975,000, up $25,000 despite a restraining order that limited the county’s ability to raise funds for United Way and another charity, Brotherhood Crusade. The order, issued in November after the United Way campaign was well under way, was in response to a lawsuit filed by a group of county employees who accused the county of coercing its workers into contributing time and money to fund-raising events.

The campaign calendar also was streamlined this year, cutting fund raising to six months, almost three months less than in some recent years.

Miscoll said that move will benefit the campaign.

“Aristotle said that a work of art has a beginning, a middle and an end,” Miscoll said. “Campaigns should not be any different. It adds urgency and discipline to the effort.”