The United Way of Northwest Vermont did not award grants this year to several Chittenden County nonprofits, some of which have received funding from the organization for decades.
The changes sparked an outcry from some nonprofit leaders who said they were counting on the money. Last Friday, Rita Markley, executive director of the Committee on Temporary Shelter, posted on Facebook that she had not received $57,600 for two programs for the homeless.
“The Daystation is the ONLY daytime shelter in Chittenden County for single adults with nowhere else to turn,” Markley wrote. “Just the worst possible news.”
Markley isn’t the only one. The Boys & Girls Club of Burlington got less than half of the $62,000 annually that it had sought for a three-year grant cycle, according to executive director Tanya Benosky.
The Heineberg Community Senior Center did not get a $24,000 allocation for programming, board chair Linda Ayer told the Burlington City Council on Monday. And the Janet S. Munt Family Room lost funding for two drop-in programs.
Meanwhile, Steps to End Domestic Violence, which has received funding since 1982, did not receive the $123,000 for which it applied, according to executive director Kelly Dougherty. The United Way gave Steps $100,000 last year, which amounted to about 10 percent of the organization’s budget, according to Dougherty.
The Champlain Valley Office of Economic Opportunity also lost substantial funding, including for its financial advising initiative, the St. Albans-based domestic violence intervention program Voices Against Violence and an employment support program.
The Chittenden Emergency Food Shelf received $40,000, less than half of what it had received for more than a decade, said CVOEO director Jan Demers. “It’s tough,” she said. “We’re going to have to work a lot harder.” CVOEO did get some United Way cash: its Housing Assistance Program and NorthWest Family Foods in St. Albans both received funding, Demers said.
The Sara Holbrook Community Center applied for $120,000 and received $54,000 annually, but got no funding for its summer camp for English Language Learners and its after-school and summer programs for low-income children, according to executive director Leisa Pollander. The organization has received funding from the United Way since the 1940s, Pollander said.
The changes should not have been completely unexpected, said Jesse Bridges, CEO of the United Way of Northwest Vermont. The organization, which helps fund and coordinate between nonprofits in Franklin, Chittenden and Grand Isle counties, spent two years working with community members to establish new funding priorities, Bridges said. In the end, the organization decided to focus on five areas: supporting families, advancing employment, reducing substance abuse, promoting mental health and meeting basic needs.
This year, for the first time, the United Way allowed any organization to apply for its program grants. Previously, only those that had been awarded the grants before could reapply. “It was not an open or inclusive process,” Bridges said.
Community members worked to establish those funding priorities and a volunteer-led committee helped vet the applications, Bridges said. This year, the United Way funded 51 programs at 34 different agencies. Each grant is provided annually for three years, he added.
Bridges said he will release the full list of funded organizations this week.
The cuts come as United Way itself is losing funding. The organization plans to give out $1.5 million dollars in grants this year, down from nearly $1.8 million last year, Bridges said.
“Changing our portfolio funding is not without change. We’re saying no to a lot of great programs,” said Bridges. He’s been reaching out to each previously funded organization himself, he said, to convey the news.
Organizations will grapple with the losses in the coming days and weeks, Pollander said, but ultimately will need to solicit donations to fill the funding gap.
“It feels like we’re put in a position of being pitted against each other,” she said. “It’s going to be, ‘Who can make the biggest plea?’ This is like total chaos.”
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
Jesse Bridges sounds to be the best thing to happen United Way’s financial responsibility in memory.
Bridges appears to be requiring some real accountability from the folks who have traditionally extended open palms with wide eyes.
Sure, his approach will make him a few enemies – the kind who snicker at answerability.
But overall, those whose charitably-given money is often burned in a never-ending cycle of drugs, laziness and all the attendant problems, will be singing his praises.
The community may have a legend in the making!
I applaud Jesse Bridges, greater oversight of how nonprofits are funded has been sorely needed. In too many cases, funding is mainly for the benefit of employees rather than allocated to those in need.
If you’re a nonprofit with $750,000 in revenue, and $500,000 goes to salaries, payroll and administrative costs, then you’re a tax shelter scam taking advantage of taxpayers. There are quite a few like this in Chittenden County alone.
Aren’t the non-profit organizations eligible for federal money or did trump do away with that like he has everything else? I know a lot of those organizations work their ass off trying to help people who are low-income and no income trying to get them on their feet! Also Miro seems to have some pull in the community to help if he wanted to
Accountability is great, and clearly grant money should be carefully overseen, but the programs I know of that lost significant funding are NOT “tax shelter scams” and in fact provide essential direct services to people in deep trauma and need. STEPS is the only shelter for survivors of interpersonal violence in the county. Cut off. Zero funds. That’s not responsible stewardship of United Way funds. Period.
The United Way is one of the worst examples of “charities” that spend most of their funds on administrative costs. Lots of info online if you’re curious.
When your funding is based on donations there are always risks that the money won’t be there. What’s your plan B?
If you don’t like the way the United Way distributes it’s money, donate directly to the charity of your choice.
The ignorance expressed in some of these comments is astounding and very revealing about how little people understand NPO’s and the vital role they play in our communities.
Here is a prime example of the ignorance.
“If you’re a nonprofit with $750,000 in revenue, and $500,000 goes to salaries, payroll and administrative costs, then you’re a tax shelter scam taking advantage of taxpayers.”
Obviously this person knows very little about the operations of a service oriented non-profit, who should have a very high percentage of their costs going to salaries/wages and related costs, when it is the personnel behind those salaries/wages and related costs who are providing the much needed services in our communities.
It is simply and factually untrue to suggest the UW spends “most of their funds on administrative costs”, when it is easily verified, as I did, and determined in fact, that most of their funds are spent on grants and operational costs, and not “administrative costs”.
This has nothing to do with Trump, despite the bogus claim that “did trump do away with that like he has everything else?”.
This is about volunteers from within our communities, having to make some very difficult decisions, and those decisions shouldn’t result in “total chaos”, unless that organization itself is in total chaos, and in that case, they shouldn’t be funded.
I wish the author had included institutions who had their funding increased from the United Way . Only including the cuts puts a negative shade on their granting function .
@The Oracle
Even worse, they operate according to extortion. If you’re a “member nonprofit,” they REQUIRE you to raise money FOR THEM (from among your own employees, many of whom don’t earn a lot of money), and there’s even a blackout period when you can’t raise money for your own organization while participating in the UW’s campaign. It’s a total racket. And then the United Way pulls this: withholds the money that deserving nonprofits raised FOR THEM, that they were depending on.
Nonprofits should dump their affiliations with the UW. They’d be much better off.