United Way reaches 92.2% of 2020 target

Paul Morden
Jan 12, 2021  •  January 12, 2021  •  2 minute read

Reaching 92.2 per cent of its $1.9-million campaign target in 2020 was much better than what the United Way of Sarnia-Lambton’s executive director was expecting just a few weeks before the end of the year.

The campaign that ran during pandemic restrictions that limited its traditional activities and community events ended up collecting a total of $1,753,000 for more than 36 programs and services by 18 agencies it helps to support.

“We were thrilled that we came that close,” said executive director Dave Brown.

The result “points out what a great community we live in, and how grateful we are to every volunteer and every donor,” he added.

Brown said there was a time when he was projecting the campaign might reach only 82 per cent of the target by the end of the year.

In the end, it was helped along by a “very successful campaign” at Nova Chemicals, as well as more contributions that came in at the Shell site, he said.

Story continues below
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.

“We had a couple of nice, surprise donors who came in that last week,” Brown said. “Combined, that brought us up to 92.2 per cent.”

The United Way board is set to meet later this month to decide how the shortfall will impact the support going to the agencies, Brown said.

Luckily, he added, the local United Way’s Future Fund endowment has been growing, “so we’ve got a little bit of extra interest revenues.”

The United Way also cut its own costs in recent years, Brown said.

“So, we’re hoping we’re not going to dig that deep but clearly there will be cuts,” to the support going to the programs and agencies, he said.

Brown said he doesn’t anticipate an across-the-board reduction.

“We’ll take a look at it agency by agency and try to make the best decisions we can,” he said.

He said 2020 was a marathon for the United Way.

“It just seemed to be a constant level of activity, all year long,” Brown said.

It began fundraising in the spring for a “compassion fund” to help local programs with immediate pandemic-related needs, followed by work helping deliver government-funded assistance, and then it went “right into the campaign,” he said.

Many of the local workplace campaigns were held online for the first time, “so we were all learning new software platforms and researching best practices,” Brown said.

The campaign also had to come up with ways to replace fundraising events. That included fundraising takeout dinners with the Dante Club, pizza kits with Christos and a bottle drive organized by On the Dot Delivery, he said.

Brown said it’s too soon to know what the campaign will look like in 2021, but he believes some of the workplace campaigns that moved online will continue that approach.

“We certainly learned a lot in 2020,” he said. “I’m kind of optimistic about some of the opportunities.”