Charity feels heat as jobless numbers rise

Andrew Mathieson
Increased demand for donations in the lead-up to Christmas has left the region’s peak charity fundraiser heading toward the financial brink.
United Way chief Adam Charleston said the pressure had forced the organisation to dip into its cash reserves for a further $1.4 million at the end of the year.
However, United Way would still be $400,000 short of fulfilling community demand, Mr Charleston said.
“During the year, the economic crisis certainly had a big part to play, which is why we pulled out the level of cash distribution we had this year,” he said.
“The $1.4 million is all the reserves we’ve got left for this year but the actual ask was closer to $2 million.
“We actually went through and did a first cull but on the second round of culling we had to sit down and pull out a further $400,000 off organisations that have a need but we just don’t have the funds to supply.”
Mr Charelston said the not-for-profit organisation had already distributed nearly $3 million from donations.
United Way provides financial support to more than 60 human health and care agencies throughout the region.
Mr Charleston said the festive season had put many working families under pressure and they needed cash quickly to pay living costs.
Welfare bodies would hand vouchers to pay for food and medicines to many locals this Christmas.
“This has been a particularly tough year,” Mr Charleston said.
“We have unfortunately had a number of firms in Geelong who have retrenched people, which puts on additional economic pressure.
“Unemployment has started to drift upwards and that has all sorts of consequences for people who don’t have the capacity to fund themselves.”
Mr Charleston was confident United Way would remain solvent thanks to the “bread and butter” fundraising of Geelong companies.
Despite increasing retrenchments across the region, companies had increased contributions by a “massive” seven per cent in 2009, he said.
Donations of non-perishable food had been “solid” this year but Victoria’s deadly Black Saturday bushfire disaster had affected United Way’s residential campaign.
“We make sure we always have the capacity to pay off what we promised,” Mr Charleston said.
“What we’re going to have to do now is work really hard in 2010 with fundraising to make sure we can continue to provide ongoing support.”