Agencies Feel Pinch From United Way’s Campaign Shortfall

A Canoga Park agency that tutors troubled youngsters must cut its program in half. A Pacoima group that runs a food bank for the poor must move to smaller, cheaper offices. And a Catholic Big Brother organization in Van Nuys must dip into an endowment fund to avoid cutting services.

Those are some of the ripple effects among San Fernando Valley social-service groups of a recent decision by the United Way of Greater Los Angeles to make up for a $12-million fund-raising shortfall by reducing allocations to community agencies.

Eighteen months ago, the giant charitable organization set a 1990-91 fund-raising goal of $102 million, but was able to raise only $90 million by the time its campaign ended this spring, according to Eleanor Hawkins, vice president for allocations.

About $85 million of that will be available for distribution to United Way agencies.

The United Way’s local chapter provides funding to 350 groups, including 62 in the Valley.

Among them are the Salvation Army, American Red Cross and agencies that help the homeless and victims of child abuse and domestic violence.

Hawkins said virtually all service providers received 17.1% less in their most recent allocations.

But she said United Way directors will meet in two weeks and may increase or decrease the percentage of subsequent payments to individual agencies, depending on the services they provide and how financially dependent they are on United Way.

“Some agencies in the region may have a 12% reduction; another may have 20%,” she said. “We’re trying to look at each situation.”

The cuts have forced community agencies, especially smaller ones that get much of their funding through United Way, to tighten their belts.

Tomas Martinez, executive director of Canoga Park-based El Centro de Amistad, said his agency will have to cut in half a program under which it provides college students to tutor elementary and junior high school students, mostly Latinos, with academic and other school problems.

The program also counsels their parents.

The program is entirely funded by a $34,000 United Way grant.

Martinez said the cut will force him to lay off one of two staff members, meaning the program will be able to serve only about half the 300 families annually that it serves now.

“We work with the poorest of the poor,” he said. “This has been one of the only ways in the Canoga Park barrio to supplement the resources here.”

Carlos Reyes is executive director of the Home Visitation Center in Pacoima, which operates a food bank and other services for poor families and gets 40% of its $120,000 budget from United Way.

Reyes said his agency must move to offices with cheaper rent.

He said the center does not anticipate cutting services, at least in the immediate future.

But he said the reduction in United Way support is likely to force the agency to move to a less-safe part of town, into smaller quarters with reduced room for food storage.

Reyes and other agency chiefs say they also plan to conduct more aggressive fund-raising operations and make other financial contingency plans.

Luke Fishburn, executive director of the Van Nuys chapter of Catholic Big Brother Inc., which provides services to about 75 children of single mothers in the Valley, said his organization plans to dip into a $1.6-million endowment, reducing its interest income, rather than cut programs.

“We’re hurting ourselves in the long run to maintain the level of programs in the Valley and elsewhere,” he said.

The agency hopes to make up the difference in future years, he said.

Carol Eckert, assistant executive director of the San Fernando Valley Girl Scout Council, which last year received about 11% of its $1.9-million budget from the United Way, said the council will conduct more aggressive fund-raising efforts this year but will not reduce services.

“From the point of view of the clients, they won’t even know the difference,” she said.