United Way of Saskatoon has let go eight employees in the past two years to compensate for a shortfall in campaign revenue.
The agency said there was a million-dollar shortfall in donations during 2017 due to economic conditions, continuing a trend that started in 2015. Donations to the United Way are down 35 per cent over the last three years.
“Charitable donations are discretionary spending and in times when money is tight, that’s the first thing to go is discretionary spending and that’s true for government and that’s true for the charitable sector,” United Way of Saskatoon CEO Shaun Dyer said.
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For the first time in 2015, the United Way made multi-year financial commitments to community partners.
“Our board and senior staff have decided to shoulder more of the blame and responsibility by reducing our workforce, cutting back spending and operational costs because we want to honour the commitments we’ve made to our community partners.”
Dyer said they have previously been able to offset the impact on its community partners by being able to draw upon financial reserves, but now have to look at other means to manage the shortfall.
The agency said will also look for savings in its budget, reduce discretionary spending and reduce investments in key programs to shore up funding for its agencies.
Funding is being cut by 50 per cent to Saskatoon’s collaborative funders programs that provides grants to community-based organizations.
There will also be a 15 per cent funding reduction to the agency’s journey home housing-first program, which moves people from homelessness into housing.
United Way said it will be making volunteer experts in non-profit management and professional accounting available to agencies to help them look at budget and cash management options to maintain programs and service levels.
Campaign revenue is projected to be $3.9 million this year, down from just over $6 million raised in 2015.
The fundraising goal for the upcoming fiscal year has not yet been set.
With files from Global’s Wendy Winiewski