Posted: Tuesday, Nov 18, 2008 - 09:53:17 am CST |
By ROGER MEISSEN
The Fulton Sun
Raising money during an
economic downturn might seem difficult, but this year's Callaway County
United Way fundraising drive is holding its own. So far.
In a little more than six weeks,
the organization has collected almost 70 percent of its $250,000 goal
for the upcoming year.
That totals more than $175,000 thanks to the efforts of motivated
community groups and gracious Callaway County residents.
“I see a lot of new givers and Callaway County people are just so
gracious and helpful that I'm very confident that we will make our goal
even though we raised it by $30,000 this year,” said Kathy Richey
Liddle, executive director of the Callaway County United Way.
These early gains are contrary to worries faced by surrounding agencies
that saw their fundraising fall short of anticipated goals. On Friday
the United Way of Central Missouri in Jefferson City announced the end
of its formal fundraising campaign, falling 5 percent short - almost
$90,000 - of its $1.6 million goal this year.
“As many charities have reported, this is a tough year for fundraising,”
UWCMO President Linda McAnany said in an agency press release.
“The early distractions were gas prices and the elections.” She
continued, “How little did we know that there would be lay-offs locally
and the stock market would take a dramatic dive.”
But Callaway County seems to be bucking that trend. While it started its campaigns much later than surrounding counties, giving has been more than anticipated in some areas.
“It's kind of hard to tell because we're not close enough to the end of the campaign, but really I don't see many of the donations down from past givers,” Richey Liddle said. “For instance, the Ovid Bell Press employee campaign brought in $5,000 more than last year and the Dollar General campaign nearly doubled what they did last year.”
That response combined with the fact that CCUW's campaign still has months to go, helps relieve some anxiety in this campaign.
“We have some of our larger campaigns still out like those of the colleges, the Missouri State Employee Charitable Campaign and Central Electric who haven't ran theirs yet,” Richey Liddle said. “ It takes awhile and since we start our campaign later than Jefferson City and Columbia do, I think we're doing pretty well.”
However, Richey Liddle said that doesn't mean the organization that supports 13 agencies doesn't need all the help it can get. With increased need and an increased goal, every dollar is needed to help the people of Callaway County and this year's campaign will continue as long as it takes.
“We'll run it through the end of the year, but we will take it into February or March if we don't meet the goal,” Richey Liddle said. “We just keep going until we make it.”