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By Ervin Dyer, Post-Gazette Staff Writer In June, the United Way of Allegheny County announced that 1998 donations to the charity had soared to a record-breaking high of $35.2 million. Local officials cited a robust economy and a national spurt in charitable giving for the $2 million increase over last year.It was a mirror of what was happening across the country. Throughout America, United Way campaigns for health and human services reached an all-time high -- $3.58 billion -- according to United Way of America President Betty Stanley Beene.
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 United Way of Allegheny County. Its per capita giving mark of $27 nets it an eighth-place finish among 14 of the PG Benchmarks regions. Figures were unavailable for San Diego. That’s one notch lower than Pittsburgh’s seventh place finish in last year’s ranking. Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, Cincinnati, Cleveland, St. Louis and Kansas City topped Pittsburgh, with Portland having the highest per capita rate at $41.46.National Football League Commissioner Paul Tagliabue, chairman of the United Way of America Board of Governors, attri-buted the success of the campaigns to an increased understanding of the value of giving through United Ways to build stronger communities, a focus on leadership giving, and a super-charged economy. "This record-setting total confirms that more individuals than ever believe that a gift to United Way is the best way to magnify and multiply the impact of their community giving," Tagliabue said. In Allegheny County, the strong contributions allowed the agency to boost allocations to local nonprofits by nearly 2 percent across the board. "Giving is up,’’ said Bob DeWitt, director of marketing communications, in part because contributors "know their dollars are doing good in the community.’’ The record-setting tallies represent an agency on the rebound. Earlier this decade, a sluggish economy and reports of misspending on the national level caused a drop off in donations. The Community Fund, a pool of money that gives the United Way broad discretion in which groups and initiatives to support, took the biggest hit. In Pittsburgh, the Community Fund fell from $18 million in 1993 to $15.5 million in 1997. Growth was experienced in every geographic region for 1997-1998 and was fueled by gains in leadership giving -- individual gifts of $1,000-plus. Leadership giving continues its trend of being the fastest-growing campaign segment, increasing at a rate of 24.1 percent over the last year and totaling $835 million, or 23.4 percent of overall revenues, up from last year’s 19.8 percent. Leadership giving locally was also strong. There were 3,762 givers who donated an average of $1,648 each, contributing $6.2 million to the campaign. In Allegheny County, there were 330 Alexis de Tocqueville donations, gifts of $10,000 or more. The average contribution was $19,547. United Way’s largest single source of revenue continues to be gifts from employees of corporations -- including payroll deductions -- and small business which donated 49.4 percent of total campaign revenue. The next largest source is corporate giving at 22.2 percent of total campaign revenue. The United Way system includes approximately 1,900 community-based organizations. Each is independent, separately incorporated and governed by local volunteers. United Way of America is the national service organization providing training, resources, and technical assistance to United Ways across America. Roundtable: Health care experts
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