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United Way saw giving rise to $3.7 billion
Sunday, December 31, 2000 By Ervin Dyer, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
It's been another record-breaking year for the United Way. Across the nation, the network of charities that uses its web of health and human services programs to improve a community's quality of life raised a collective $3.7 billion last year.
That's a boost of more than $190 million -- a 5.4 percent increase over 1998-99 levels -- and the fourth consecutive year that campaign growth has outpaced inflation.
The United Way of Allegheny County brought in more than $39.1 million in its 1999 annual campaign -- exceeding its goal of $38.1 million.
The figure marks the fifth consecutive year a fund-raising record has been set in Allegheny County and means that the local United Way has now raised more than $1 billion since records were first kept in 1955.
PG Benchmarks measures the contributions per capita of the largest agency in each of the compared metropolitan areas.
In Greater Pittsburgh the largest agency is the United Way of Allegheny County.
Its per capita giving mark of $28.88 nets it a sixth place finish among 13 of the PG Benchmark regions. This means the United Way of Allegheny County raised more than $28 for every person in this area served by the agency. Per capita giving rates were not available for Tampa, Fla., and Portland, Ore.
Seattle had the highest per capita rate at $48.88, up more than $8 from last year. Much of it was fueled by the vast and charitable Boeing Co., which had the largest workplace campaign in the nation as the corporation, employees and unions contributed $44 million for community services.
In comparing other per capita rates, Pittsburgh fell below Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland and St. Louis. However, at $28.88, Pittsburgh's per capita rate still outpaces the national average, at $15.89.
The successes of the campaigns have been attributed to a red-hot economy, organizations that work to build a better understanding of how giving serves a community and agencies that evolve with the changing needs of a region.
Locally, the United Way of Allegheny County has begun reaching out to the Tri-State area to improve collaborations of services, to share resources and to better aid communities and employers.
To do that, the 20-year-old entity known as United Way of Southwestern Pennsylvania, which included the United Ways of Allegheny, Beaver, Greene and Washington counties and the Mon Valley, has been dissolved.
However, the concept of a regional meeting place for United Ways will remain. It will now have an extended reach -- connecting 16 area agencies -- as a way to fund-raise and deliver client and support services, such as volunteer campaigns and recruitment of gifts.
It's a big difference from a decade ago when a stalled economy and reports of misspending on the national level caused a sharp drop-off in donations. The Community Fund, the pool of unrestricted contributions to help families, neighbors and others in need, suffered the most. The fund is now on the rebound.
United Way of Allegheny County has focused on promoting the Community Fund for the past three campaigns and there's been growth during the past two years.
United Way officials tout the Community Fund, believing that it gives agencies the discretion to respond to rapidly changing needs.
To make the Community Fund more accountable, United Way volunteers review its programs and agency management for effectiveness, to make sure the money is invested wisely, meets needs and solves problems.
Across the nation, gifts from employees of corporations and small businesses continue to be the largest source of revenue. In 1999 these gifts accounted for $1.8 billion or 49.5 percent of the total campaign. Corporate giving is still the second largest segment of the campaign at $837 million or 22 percent of the campaign.
In Allegheny County, totals for employee contributions were unconfirmed but coming in at close to 37.6 percent, or $13.2 million. Corporate giving, still unconfirmed, was 22.3 percent or $7.7 million.
Nationally, leadership giving, or contributions of more $1,000, continued to be the fastest growing segment of the campaign. In 1999, nationally, de Tocqueville gifts, donations of more than $10,000, grew to $343 million.
It looked as if leadership held steady in Allegheny County also. Early figures for local United Way officials had individual gifts of more than $1,000 accounting for 31.2 percent of the campaign or $11.9 million.
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