Charities Face A Growing Burden Downsizing, State Budget Cuts Bring Increased Demand

In a conservative era, paring down government programs means charities bear more of the burden of stocking food banks, sheltering runaways and providing medical care for the poor.

United Way is the traditional umbrella organization for many of those nonprofit groups. But because United Way organizations across Idaho are autonomous, the health of the local economy often dictates whether each office hits or misses its fund-raising target.

“If you cut taxes, you just transfer the burden onto the local community,” said Lucinda Ade, outgoing director of the United Way of Kootenai County. “The individual ends up paying. With us, the person has a choice to cooperate.”

Although Kootenai County made its $450,000 United Way target for 1995, dimmer prospects for the economy in 1996 could hurt fund-raising efforts.

And what little state money that had been available for charities no longer is there.

The Idaho Epilepsy League lost $69,000 as the Legislature cut its budget. It was the only private charity receiving state tax money.

“They’re going to turn to the private sector to try to recoup that,” said Linda Laky, United Way of Ada County spokeswoman.

The allure of lakes and mountains is attracting more people to North Idaho, but Ade said that with them comes the need for services, especially for low-income families.

And because rural counties often don’t have their own United Way groups, residents there travel to the cities for the social services the charity sponsors.

The Twin County United Way in Lewiston and Clarkston, Wash., fell $45,000 short of its most recent $555,000 annual fund-raising goal.

“It’s going to be really tough for the community,” said executive director Patti Mooney. “It’s the downsizing. A lot of companies have laid off workers and others have talked about it.”

Several important projects could suffer, including the Valley Boys and Girls Club, which serves 3,000 children and offers a program for at-risk teens.

United Way of Ada County is blessed with several major corporations in the Boise area and plenty of individual contributors. It collected a record $3.4 million in the latest annual fund-raising drive, a 5.1 percent jump from 1994.

United Way in Pocatello attracted 93 percent of its target. But the $500,700 raised was $32,000 less than the year before.

Director Jeanne Paseman said the trend of businesses downsizing means there are more residents without enough income to make a pledge, and more becoming potential recipients.

United Way in Idaho Falls raised $774,700, or about three-quarters of its $1 million goal. The area has been trying to cope with hundreds of layoffs at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory.

United Way of Canyon County brought in $312,000, a 6 percent increase from the year before, executive director Sally Zive said. But Hewlett-Packard in Boise has been cutting hundreds of employees and many of them live in Canyon County.

The Idaho Food Bank Warehouse supplies more commodities in Canyon County than any other county in the state, and the local battered-women’s shelter is the busiest in Idaho.

“When the federal government passes on the responsibility to states and counties, we only hope that if people don’t have to pay the government in increased taxes, they’ll feel like sharing,” Zive said. “We’ve got to do more.”

, DataTimes