United Way of Bristol struggling to meet fundraising goal

Charlotte McKenney calls the Healing Hands Health Center a godsend.

The Bristol, Tenn.-based clinic provides low-cost health care for the area’s working uninsured. For McKenney, it was the clinic’s diagnosis and treatment of her arthritis that resulted in her current full-time employment.

“Healing Hands is the first place that diagnosed me correctly and got me some help,” McKenney said last week.

Despite a lengthy battle with crippling arthritis, McKenney now works at the Dixie Outpost restaurant in Blountville and on her own farm. She still doesn’t make enough money to afford health insurance, so she is eligible to be treated at the clinic.

“I could be crippled and in a wheelchair, but that’s not me. I’ve gone from barely able to work 10 or 20 hours a week to 50 hours-plus. It’s amazing what they’ve done for me,” she said.

Healing Hands, which recently marked its 30,000th patient visit, is one of 30 area health and human service agencies that could suffer if the United Way of Bristol fails to reach its fundraising goal this year.

Last year, the clinic received more than $32,000 from the United Way’s $1.3 million 2008-09 campaign.

“This year, we hope to receive $40,000 from the United Way, which is 10 percent of our annual operating budget,” clinic Executive Director Helen Vance Scott said. “If we don’t get some of that money, we’ll just have to find it somewhere else.”

After years of providing free care, the clinic began charging nominal fees this year after other donations fell off. But the need keeps growing, Scott said.

Currently, Healing Hands is experiencing a “steady” average increase of 30 new patients each week, compared to past years, Scott said.

“I’m not concerned if we meet our goal or not,” United Way Executive Director Cofer said. “What I am concerned about is meeting the needs in our community, but we can’t meet those needs if we don’t meet or exceed our goal.”

So far, the 2009-10 United Way campaign has raised about $887,000, or about 71 percent of its $1.25 million goal. Officials had hoped to conclude the campaign by late November, but are now extending efforts into December. 

The local United Way’s annual fundraising campaign supports a variety of programs, including Abuse Alternatives, the Boys Scouts and Girls Scouts, the Salvation Army, the Crisis Center and Boys and Girls Club.

More than 90 percent of all monies raised go to area agencies, with less than 10 percent used for administrative costs.

Other agencies like Bristol Faith in Action – an interfaith group that provides financial assistance for housing, utilities and other critical needs – report more
dramatic increases in requests for aid.

“We are extremely busy,” Program Director Terry Stone said. “On many days, we are seeing a 100 percent increase in volume of people we usually see and
we’re up at least 50 percent every day.”

The agency received more than $27,000 from the United Way this year.

The mostly volunteer agency – which is only open 16 hours per week – typically sees about 60 families a week, Stone said. In recent weeks, however, they’ve seen up to 30 families in a single four-hour day.

Those increases are directly attributable to layoffs, people working fewer hours and paying higher bills, Stone said.

“We’re seeing people we’ve never seen before – people who’ve never been in this position before. They come in and say they don’t know what to do,” Stone said.

The Mountain Empire Chapter of the American Red Cross received more than $75,000 last year from United Way donations. Despite that, the agency is currently struggling to maintain its services, Executive Director Felicia McNabb said.

“In this economic environment, the monthly check we get from the United Way is the only income we can really depend on,” McNabb said, adding that fundraising contributions made directly to the local Red Cross are off by about $80,000 this year.

“We’re holding our own, but we can’t really cut a whole lot of expenses,” McNabb said. “Our staff is down by one-and-a-half [employees], we’ve cut out pagers and our disaster volunteers are now relying on their personal cell phones – which might not work in a major disaster.”

Cooler temperatures typically signal a rash of house fires and the Red Cross has responded to several in recent weeks, McNabb said.

While this year’s United Way campaign is slightly ahead of last year’s pace, a significant number of large corporate or individual contributions have been reduced or eliminated, Cofer said.

“There are still some fairly large gifts we haven’t received yet, but some large corporate gifts are not coming in or not at the same level,” Cofer said. “We’ve done some forecasting and, even if we get those large [anticipated] gifts, we still expect to be about $35,000 short.”

This year’s campaign is being extended into at least mid-December, but officials hope to complete their work before Christmas, Cofer said.

When last year’s campaign failed to reach its $1.37 million goal, the United Way board opted to transfer funds from its reserve account – which could be an option this year.

“The board would have to decide if they want to change the allocations or transfer money,” Cofer said. “But the reserves are not limitless.”

During the current campaign, employees of many of the Twin City’s businesses have responded by matching or exceeding last year’s donations and other public events have been successful, Cofer said.

Last Sunday, the United Way’s annual One Enchanted Evening event at the Bristol Mall raised about $11,000 – the second highest total ever – and a celebrity bagging event at area Food City stores was expected to generate as much as $5,000.

United Way officials are also appealing to anyone who isn’t typically approached through their employment.

“We want to reach out to folks who weren’t being asked, or if they’ve not been asked this year, to give to United Way,” Cofer said. “Just based on the number of people coming into our office, the needs for basic necessities like food, shelter and clothing are greater than ever before and we’re seeing people who’ve never asked before. It’s our community and everybody can help.”

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