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MERCER COUNTY: United Way defends cuts to area agencies

Better Beginnings and Rise among eight nonprofit groups impacted

By Lea Kahn, Packet Media Group
‘The loss of this funding greatly
impacts the ability of Rise to
deliver essential services.’
– Leslie Koppel of Rise
   Combined reductions in funding of nearly $419,000, spread across eight nonprofit groups that receive money from the United Way of Greater Mercer County might not appear to be significant — unless the agency serves you.
   That is the position taken by several executive directors or leaders of the eight affected nonprofit groups — ranging from Womanspace and HomeFront to Better Beginnings and Rise.
   The United Way funding cuts to these agencies will be fully implemented this month.
   Family Guidance is losing $153,600 in funding, which accounted for 2.21 percent of its expenses and 2.50 percent of its program costs that were funded by the United Way of Greater Mercer County in 2011, according to figures compiled by www.guidestar.org and released by the United Way of Greater Mercer County.
   HomeFront is losing $17,288, or .21 percent of its expenses and .23 percent of its program costs that were funded by the United Way of Greater Mercer County in 2011.
   Hightstown’s Rise is losing $24,802, which is 5.58 percent of its expenses and 6.46 percent of its program costs that were funded by the United Way of Greater Mercer County in 2011.
   The decision to reduce funding to some nonprofit groups was based on reduced donations to the United Way of Greater Mercer County and donor preferences, said Herbert Klein III, president and chief executive officer. The result is a shift in the approach to allocating funds.
   Budget woes at the United Way of Greater Mercer County — attributable to a drop in donations — required an infusion of nearly $700,000 from its reserves and a 25-percent reduction in employees, Mr. Klein said.
   The budget shortfall also resulted in the decision to reduce funding to the Family Strengthening Partnership, which is comprised of the eight nonprofit groups, Mr. Klein said. It is one of several partnerships — bundles of nonprofit groups — that receive some funding from the United Way of Greater Mercer County.
   There is more competition for donors’ dollars today than in the past, Mr. Klein said, noting that there were 300,000 nonprofit groups in 1990 and about 1.6 million today. And given the Internet, it is easier for donors to pick and choose among nonprofit groups, he added.
   As a result, the United Way of Greater Mercer County is committed to “investing” donors’ dollars in outcomes — not agencies, Mr. Klein said.
   It is an approach with which the eight nonprofit groups disagree, claiming that it is a departure from the United Way’s traditional role of raising money and distributing it to nonprofit agencies.
   Nevertheless, the United Way of Greater Mercer County is dedicated to the new model of outcomes versus agencies. The traditional approach of handing out money to nonprofit groups is outmoded and has not been done in years, Mr. Klein said.
   As an example of the “outcomes” approach, he pointed to the Youth Mentor Link program, which tries to improve graduation rates for high school students at Trenton Central High School. The program is operated by the United Way of Greater Mercer County.
   In its first year, 90 percent of the participants in the Youth Mentor Link program — or 42 of the 48 students in the group — graduated from high school, he said. Statistics show that high school graduates are less likely to end up in jail and more likely to have better jobs and pay more income taxes than high school dropouts, he said.
   ”(The United Way of Greater Mercer County) measures outcomes. For anything we invest in, we have to measure it. We have a fiduciary responsibility. Youth Mentor Link tries to graduate as many students as possible. We want them to go on with their lives,” Mr. Klein said.
   Mr. Klein recalled a United Way of Greater Mercer County employee who was homeless and who had a substance abuse problem. The employee became involved in the United Housing First program — also a United Way program — and began volunteering at the United Way, Mr. Klein said. He is working for the United Way and attending college, with the goal of becoming a substance abuse counselor.
   ”(The United Way of Greater Mercer County) is interested in spending donor funds on programs that change people’s conditions and programs that are designed to change people’s lives,” Mr. Klein said. “The United Housing First program puts people in stable housing situations and offers them an opportunity to improve their education and their employment.”
   He continued, “We don’t fund agencies. We decide what problems we want to solve and which partners will help us solve the problem. It is not my objective to raise money for others and spread peanut butter on a piece of bread as thinly as possible. That’s not what we do.”
   He pointed to a change in the United Way’s approach —from funding individual nonprofit groups to funding collaborations. The collaborations are groups of nonprofits. The overall aim has shifted to the “community impact model,” which focuses on health, education and financial stability — and that’s what initially led to the Family Strengthening Partnership.
   Mr. Klein, whose background is in the corporate and consulting world, said he took on the job of president and CEO because he saw it as an opportunity to create change. He said he believes in providing tools for people.
   He said that he “certainly understands” the eight nonprofit groups’ discomfort, but it is not the United Way of Greater Mercer County’s obligation to generate money for the sake of generating money. It is to devise and implement programs that are viewed as valuable by the donors, he noted.
   ”If all we do is hand out money, we have not done our job,” Mr. Klein said.
   Noting that “no one” holds nonprofit groups accountable, Mr. Klein said that the United Way of Greater Mercer County has begun to use a computer software program — “efforts to outcome” — to assess how effectively the money has been spent. The Family Strengthening Partnership was in the process of being reviewed when the budget crisis occurred.
   An across-the-board budget cut was contemplated, but “it didn’t make sense” because that would have damaged every program, he said. The other collaborations had been reviewed and while he said he “did not like it,” making the cut to the Family Strengthening Partnership “got me there. It was a hard decision.”
   The eight members of the Family Strengthening Partnership don’t like it, either, and they have made their position known — beginning with a widely circulated letter signed by the executive directors of seven of the eight affected nonprofit groups.
   The letter says that cuts in funding will reduce domestic violence counseling and shelter services, cut down on the number of hours of case management and advocacy for children in the foster care system and specialized counseling for child victims of sexual abuse and their families, as well as a reduction in the number of bags of groceries for low-income families and affordable mental health, substance abuse and housing counseling.
   ”By turning away from the fundamental needs of under-served families in our communities, the United Way of Greater Mercer County has abdicated its historical role as a vital part of the social safety net. The demand for our services is much higher than ever, due to economic problems we all face,” the executive directors wrote.
   ”Donors should now realize that when they give to the United Way of Greater Mercer County, more and more of their donations will be kept by the United Way to fund itself as a ‘new’ agency,” the executive directors stated. Less money will be given to nonprofit groups.
   Connie Mercer, executive director of the Lawrence-based HomeFront, said she was “profoundly sad and scared (about the funding cuts). These services were absolutely essential.”
   HomeFront helps homeless families and the working poor.
   Patricia Hart, executive director of the Lawrence-based Womanspace, said the agency is in the process of assessing the impact of the cutbacks on its ability to help victims of domestic violence, but it is likely that “if people come in, there will be more limited capacity. Transitional housing will have fewer apartments and there will be a longer waiting list for counseling.”
   ”It’s a challenge and a struggle to continue to offer quality services to the number of people requesting them,” Ms. Hart said. “We have provided outcomes forever. Nobody hands you money and says, ‘Do what you want.’ We have been providing results from Day 1.”
   Penny Ettinger, executive director of PEI Kids — which helps child victims of sexual abuse and also deals with issues of bullying, gangs and child pornography — said the impact of reduced funding would be “fairly significant.”
   PEI Kids’ budget is about $1 million, but the $25,000 that is being cut is money that could have been used for programs, Ms. Ettinger said, adding that “it is a significant hit for PEI Kids, absolutely. We certainly didn’t expect it at all.”
   PEI Kids is based in Lawrence.
   Ms. Ettinger said the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office contacts PEI Kids when the office thinks there has been sexual abuse. Many families/clients have “multiple things going on,” she said, pointing out that the child, a sibling or the parent may get services from other agencies in the collaborative.
   ”We may refer them for family therapy. We did a lot with that money through the collaboration of agencies,” Ms. Ettinger said.
   In Hightstown, Leslie Koppel, the executive director of Rise, said the funding cut means 12 children will not be able to attend the Rise summer program for lack of scholarship money and that it also eliminates the funding for a licensed clinical social worker to work with 125 children in the summer program.
   The social worker — who is often the only access to family counseling and professional help for low-income families — teaches the children positive behavior and also works with individual children and their families, the executive director said.
   ”The United Way cuts will eliminate special programming for teens in the Rise summer program — Safe Dates and Seven Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Overall, the funding cuts resulted in a 10-percent reduction of income to Rise for 2013. Larger agencies can absorb this loss. However, the loss of this funding greatly impacts the ability of Rise to deliver essential services,” Ms. Koppel said.
   Rise recently held its annual holiday party, with the support of donations from the community. Rise gave more than 700 gifts to local children at the December event.
   Also in Hightstown, the Better Beginnings Child Development Center — which is part of the United Early Education Collaboration and which also lost United Way funding for this year — provides a quality and affordable child-care program for low-income families, according to Luz Nereida Horton, its executive director.
   ”The child-care program has contributed to the educational, physical, social, emotional and character development of children in a safe and healthy environment since 1967,” Ms. Horton said. “It remains unclear why a program and project that always provided positive outcomes and which was used as a model for the development of another child-care program project was defunded.”