"Challenges" was a word spoken often at the annual meeting for Battlefords United Way Thursday.
The report from United Way chair Monte Migneault acknowledged the organization's struggles in 2013 - a year in which the United Way saw lower revenues than the year before.
"We have had a couple of difficult years," said Migneault. However, "in the future things are going to turn around for our organization."
The year began with Battlefords United Way having switched from having a full-time executive director to a part-time ED. The ED was back to full-time hours by May, but revenues fell short.
By the end of the year, they had no ED in place. That staff position was eliminated in a cost-cutting move.
Fundraising proved challenging in part due to the loss of revenue from Bridgefest, which was discontinued in 2013.
In its place the organization tried a United Way Giveaway in which a Chevy Trax was offered along with a number of other prizes.
Unfortunately, only 1,208 tickets were sold and the giveaway ended up with a net loss of $5,026.94. According to its chair, Brendon Boothman, there will not be a second giveaway in 2014.
The two major events in 2013, the golf tournament and comedy night, also did not meet their budget targets, and the business campaign saw a drop off as well.
Mignault chalks up some of the fundraising struggles to the overall charitable climate in the Battlefords. Battlefords United Way has had to compete for fundraising dollars with a number of other major fundraising projects in the community over the past couple of years.
"That's definitely part of it," said Migneault. But he adds a "lack of volunteers has kind of hurt us. There's a lot of different organizations that people can volunteer for and we didn't really have the numbers to put on the type of campaign that we wanted to have."
The lack of stability seen in the executive director's position over the past few years was another issue, Migneault noted. They have had four EDs on staff since 2010.
The difficulties forced the organization to do some serious thinking about its future. In his presentation to the general meeting, Migneault acknowledged thought was given to exploring various options, "none of which were ideal."
But after consulting with some experienced members of the community who had seen the organization's ups and downs, "we came to the conclusion that an organization which has been in the Battlefords since 1969 should not cease operations because of a few difficult years."
Instead, the Battlefords United Way will carry on in 2014 with executive director duties to be filled through a service contract arrangement with Kathy McNinch. Her previous experience was in a similar role on contract as executive director with the Battlefords and District Community Foundation.
Last year, $71,000 was allocated to six organizations, while an additional $10,000 each was allocated to BTEC and to the Boys and Girls Club out of what was the former Bridgefest account. Those two latter allocations went towards those organizations' new building projects.
That brought 2013 allocations to $91,000, down from $103,000 the year before.
This year the allocations committee was given a budget of $60,000 towards allocations, and recommendations on allocations for 2014 will be brought forward at their May meeting.
The hope is that the infusion of some additional members of the board will help in 2014. A new board has been nominated for 2014-15 and a new executive has been nominated. Brendon Boothman takes over as chair, with Erin Katerynych as first vice-chair, Rose Silzer-Quinn as second vice-chair and Jana Blais as treasurer.
Boothman had previously been the business campaign chair for the United Way. Migneault will be staying on with the board as past-chair, and a number of new people have been added as well.
The hope was expressed that the infusion of new members will spur new ideas and enthusiasm, and help turn things around for the organization in 2014.
The United Way plans to continue to partner with past donors and sponsors and also come up with ideas for events in 2014.
They plan to hold their annual golf tournament again on July 7. Another major event coming up which the United Way is involved with is the annual Community Clean-up May 10.
"We're hoping the community comes out and cleans up and helps the Battlefords be a beautiful place to live, because that's what our organization is about," said Migneault.
