United Way lowers goal for its 2010 campaign; focus on education

United Way of Greater Toledo plans to announce Wednesday a scaled-back, $13.3 million goal for its 2010 campaign - its smallest since 2004 - but officials say they aren't lowering their aspirations.

Last year, United Way hoped to raise an ambitious $17.9 million but brought in $13.1 million from supporters in Lucas, Wood, and Ottawa counties.

"The reality is last year was a need-based goal, sharing with the community in these tough times what the true need is," said Bill Kitson, president and chief executive officer of United Way.

"This year's goal - while the needs have not changed, in fact you could argue the needs have increased - we wanted to set a goal that the community could achieve and the community could reach for so we set a goal that is a little more modest."

The agency knows it will be receiving $500,000 less in federal stimulus funds this year and will receive no money from the Chrysler Foundation, which last year provided $67,000.

"It's still aggressive," Mr. Kitson said of the goal. " … We're hopeful the community will feel as aggressively as we do about meeting the needs in the community."

Sharon Speyer, regional president for Huntington National Bank and this year's campaign manager, was to announce the goal at a kickoff event Wednesday morning at the Huntington Center.

This year's campaign is focused on improving education - specifically high school graduation rates - although donors also may direct contributions to help in the area of income and health or earmark their donations to specific organizations or programs.

"We're saying today we want to graduate kids, we want families to be financially stable, and we want access to health care," Mr. Kitson said. "Those are the things we're going to fund no matter how much we raise, and the more money we have, the more work we can do in those areas. The less we have, the harder our decisions are."

Mr. Kitson said gifts directed to education, income, or health are used as needed during the year. Case in point: When school started this fall, Woodward High School Principal Emilio Ramirez called United Way to say he had 30 students who couldn't see the chalkboard.

"Half a day of phone calls and they're getting eye exams and free glasses so that they can see the board," Mr. Kitson said. "That's access to health care."

Eighty-five cents of every dollar donated to United Way goes directly to services, he said, with the other 15 cents paying for fund-raising and administration.

In recent weeks, Ms. Speyer and Mr. Kitson have been meeting with CEOs of the area's 20 largest employers, and she said she's been pleasantly surprised by the response.

"Every visit that we had, the response was, 'We will at a minimum get to where we were last year and we are hopeful and plan to do better,'" Ms. Speyer said.

Mr. Kitson said he is encouraged by early campaign gifts. First Solar Inc. in Perrysburg Township recently completed its campaign - raising $140,000 from employees, compared with $119,000 last year. The company agreed to match up to $125,000 in gifts, making the company's total gift $265,000.

"It would be naive of us to say that it's going to be a great year, but we do see signs of success," Mr. Kitson said.

One question mark, he said, is the response United Way will get from the Chrysler Group LLC, which is now under management of Fiat SpA. He and Ms. Speyer have not yet met with the new plant manager in Toledo.

In total, United Way already has $1.7 million for the 2010 campaign, which runs through Dec. 9.

"That's a huge start for us," Mr. Kitson said. "We feel really good about where we are at right now."

This year, BP-Husky Refining LLC in Oregon is sponsoring an education challenge grant that will match donations designated for education up to $25,000.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at:

jfeehan@theblade.com

or 419-724-6129.