Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, September 9, 1995 TAG: 9509110058
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT FREIS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
As the campaign officially kicked off Friday with the organization's annual Day of Caring, community responsibility was a major theme.
This year the local United Way has set a goal to raise $900,000, a record amount. The money will be distributed among 39 human service agencies and some could not exist without it.
For these agencies, the United Way's share has become increasingly vital as operating funds from state and federal governments recede.
The move toward privatization puts more pressure on the United Way to produce. The stakes are high for people who depend on the services United Way-supported agencies give.
Trends like this would be worrisome to officials of the local United Way if last year's campaign hadn't experienced an unprecedented outpouring of generosity. About 6,900 individual donations totaling more than $840,000 exceeded the 1994 goal by $50,000.
Participation in the Day of Caring Friday got the campaign off to a record start. More than 200 volunteers representing 22 local businesses spent the day performing a variety of tasks for United Way agencies, the most workers in the event's three-year history.
On a warm late-summer day, groups of volunteers hammered nails at a Habitat for Humanity house under construction in Christiansburg, washed emergency vehicles at the Blacksburg Rescue Squad, helped prepare and serve lunch at the Radford-Fairlawn Daily Bread kitchen and spruced up the Boy Scouts' Camp Powhatan near Hiwassee - among other jobs.
Now the donor solicitations will begin, an effort campaign officials hope to wrap up by Nov. 15. Employee campaigns conducted by businesses are the mainstay of the local United Way's effort.
The United Way of Montgomery, Radford and Floyd heavily depends on campaigns conducted among the New River Valley's many state employees, most of whom work for Virginia Tech and Radford University.
Kymn Davidson-Hamley, the local United Way's executive director, is concerned that early retirement buyouts accepted within the past year by a number of state employees will reduce giving in this important category. "We don't know what impact that will have," she said.
Yet Davidson-Hamley and the 1995 campaign's chairman, Jay Johnson, believe their pitch to potential donors is solid.
Like last year, "Helping People, Changing Lives, Here at Home" is the campaign slogan. "We're telling donors, 'You can take it very literally,'" Johnson said. "The money you give flows right through to our agencies."
According to United Way statistics, 85 cents of every dollar donated to the local campaign is distributed to the agencies supported by the organization. The rest is used for administration, fund raising and fund distribution.
"Our overhead is lower than the national average for similar groups. We're very effective getting the money where it needs to go," Johnson said.
Money given to the local United Way stays in the community, Davidson-Hamley said. "Our agencies are local and they serve local people. That's what we are, period."
NRV groups such as the local Mental Health Association, the Agency for the Mentally Retarded, Big Brothers/Big Sisters and the Free Clinic rely on United Way-generated dollars to provide a significant slice of their annual budget, she said.
The 1995 campaign will deliver the United Way's message personally, by one-on-one contact, Johnson said. "We're not a high-pressure organization. There will be no dinner-time phone calls."
Also, this year the United Way expands its campaign to absorb several Floyd County social service agencies.
Johnson said anyone interested in giving to United Way or organizing an employee drive can call the local office at 381-2066.
"Every gift counts," he added.
by CNB