United Way Falls Short of Goal, but Calls Drive a Success

Despite falling $800,000 shy of a $5.5-million fund-raising goal, local United Way officials declared their 1998 campaign a success Tuesday.

The nonprofit group expects an additional $500,000 to roll in to its coffers from businesses whose companywide campaigns do not end until the first quarter of the new year.

If all the money comes in as projected, the final total will reach $5,204,853.

“We knew that $5.5 million was a stretch goal,” campaign chairman Don Oliver said. “We have exceeded last year’s $5.2-million total and that is what’s really important.”

The agency also plans some first-time campaigns at other companies early next year, which could further boost the final tally.

The campaign results bode well for the 59 charities countywide that rely on United Way of Ventura County for a portion of their revenues each year, as well as for the agency itself.

Nonprofit groups that receive a portion of their funding from United Way range from internationally known organizations such as the Red Cross to such local groups as Camarillo Hospice.

In May, United Way cut its total grants by 30% after incurring a $1.2-million deficit because it fell short in collecting thousands of dollars in unpaid pledges.

The deficit spurred officials to make other changes in how United Way operates, including shortening a fund-raising campaign that ran from September through the following May to just 90 days.

In addition, the group hired a new executive director, laid off five people and cut expenses, most notably scaling back charitable allocations to its member agencies over the next three years by $1 million in an effort to eliminate its deficit by 2001.

Abe Oliveras, executive director of the Boys & Girls Club of Oxnard and Port Hueneme, said he was pleased with the campaign results.

United Way is the organization’s largest source of money, contributing about $128,000 of its $674,000 budget, Oliveras said.

The club lost $56,000 and was forced to let go two staff members when United Way cut its allocations.

“It’s encouraging to know that for next year, we will maintain the same level of support, so no more cuts will be forthcoming,” Oliveras said. “As long as we maintain what we have, we will be able to get by. We just have to tighten our belt and wait until United Way recoups [its losses]. Nobody likes to get a cut, but this is reality right now.”

Even though United Way has fallen short of its fund-raising target, Executive Director Sheryl Wiley Solomon said the campaign has brought a measure of stability to its operations.

“When we revamped the campaign last spring, we had two other important goals in addition to the fund-raising goal,” she said. “We wanted to be able to mount an intense, aggressive campaign that would focus the attention of the public and the media on community needs, and we wanted to be able to know how much we’d actually raised before we had to make agency funding decisions in the spring.

“We have accomplished both and laid a strong foundation for improving future campaigns.”

Ventura County United Way

As of Dec. 15, the United Way campaign has raised: $4.7 Million