Facing unprecedented money trouble, United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades is turning to the community it serves for help closing a $1.6 million-plus gap.
Beyond the fundraising shortfall, it’s had to lay off a dozen employees and is operating with an interim president/CEO after the May departure of its longtime leader, Jeannine Joy.
For seven decades, the group has been the region’s financial first responder, showing up when hurricanes and pandemics strike. But more than crisis relief, it provides steady support for 92 groups that feed, heal, teach and support the community year-round.
And now, in a twist of financial fate, United Way needs help in order to keep giving it.
Gift leaves United Way interim president/CEO ‘shocked’
Among the first to step up: Lee Health, which announced it was kicking in a quarter-million on top of its already-pledged $250,000 to the annual $11.5 million campaign, a move that “completely shocked” Hannah Pelle.
At a June 3 press conference, Pelle, the nonprofit’s interim president and CEO was joined by a corps of donors, community leaders and partner agency heads to announce the One in a Million campaign.
“This is something that has to be done as a community. We can’t do it alone. United Way can’t do it alone,” said Larry Antonucci, Lee Health’s president and CEO.
“We’re here to encourage other businesses, other philanthropies to come forward and help them meet their goal … It’s critical we maintain these services for our community.”
Need for its services has increased, but the money to pay for them has decreased as a troubled economy and multiple crises have made fundraising ever-harder.
At the conference, Pelle said she’d been overwhelmed by the response, while emphasizing the fight is far from over. “We have to make this goal to fund our agencies.”
Corporations aren’t the only ones helping the helpers. The event highlighted two matching gifts ― $100,000 match from a private family foundation and another $100,000 match from longtime supporters Linda and Tom Uhler.
The couple has a more than three-decade history with the nonprofit and Tom helped head up the challenging 2008 annual campaign, which he recalls as “a tough year … an economic depression and people were reluctant to give,” he said. “But we did it, and we’re going to do it again.”
To do it again will mean raising some $1.3 million more.
Carolyn Rogers, co-chair of the annual campaign, points out, “There are a million reasons to give – and thousands of lives are depending on it,” she said, “We are calling on our community to be the one in a million to help us close the gap.”
United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades: Help out, learn more
Since 1957, United Way of Lee, Hendry, and Glades has raised and distributed more than $272 million, with all funds staying local to support a vast network of partner agencies and community programs.
Online, visit UnitedWayLee.org/Donate or call 239-433-2000. If you need help, dial their service clearinghouse number: 211.
Source: United Way of Lee, Hendry, and Glades
Amy Bennett Williams is a senior reporter. Reach her at awilliams@news-press.com.
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This article originally appeared on Fort Myers News-Press: United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades needs $1.6 million to avoid cuts
Reporting by Amy Bennett Williams, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News / Fort Myers News-Press
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Amy Bennett Williams, Fort Myers News-Press & Naples Daily News | USA TODAY Network
