By MATT PIKE
St. Joseph Post
United Way of Greater St. Joseph fell just short of its fundraising goal, but continue to raise money.
United Way President Kylee Strough says that the initial campaign raised $2.3 million, but the United Way isn't done raising money yet.
"We actually have a few workplace campaigns left to do, including the next couple weeks, we'll be in some businesses meeting with their employees because they just didn't have their all staff meetings in September and October, so we'll be there in November, early December," Strough tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post. "So we hope that numbers going to grow a little bit."
The goal of this campaign season was to raise just as much, if not more than last year’s total of $2.4 million, which Strough believes is still achievable with the fundraising United Way still has left.
"We're hoping that 2.4 and, maybe even 2.5, is still achievable, it's really up to those people at this point who say yes to continue to give," Strough says. "One of the things we will do is we're going to scale back our public ask, so if you see us on social media or things like that, we're not going to be asking people to give that way like we have been for the last two months."
All money raised during this year’s campaign will be streamlined to United Ways 17 partner agencies, as well as into an emergency fund to help around the St. Joseph community.
Strough says that compared to last year, this year’s campaign was much better. United Way Volunteers were able to return to campaigning face to face, but did see some lingering effects of the COVID pandemic when St. Joseph saw a surge earlier this fall.
"We did have a moment of pause early in the campaign as those COVID numbers were spiking, we were watching some corporations kind of recluse back in, either sending people to work from home or no visitors allowed," Strough explains.
But, Strough says after that initial scare, volunteers were able to overcome and exceed last year.
"We had ten times more opportunities and companies that we got to be face-to face at this year, compared to last year," Strough says.
Strough says United Way volunteers had upwards of 120 face-to-face meetings with St. Joseph businesses compared to just around a dozen or so last year.