The Prairieland United Way’s annual campaign is reaching the home stretch.
Executive Director Karen Walker says that campaign is short of 70% of its goal with just a little over a month to go: “We have until the end of February, but we are making strides on that. We are not quite at 70% to our goal of $467,000, but we are still working on it and have every intention of getting there.”
Walker says that’s a little bit under progress compared to this time last year. Walker attributes it to some employee campaigns that have not been turned in yet. Walker says most of the other employee campaigns have come in and shown some growth while other campaigns showed losses: “We have that every year. There’s some give and take. It seems like that I feel like I get a gain somewhere, we have a loss somewhere else. So, it’s just one of those things that we go through every year.”
Walker says when it comes to awareness about what Prairieland United Way does for Morgan, Scott, and northern Greene counties, she feels that some people still haven’t gotten the message or get the full picture. She says despite their efforts, some people still fall through the cracks on getting the message: “At some point each year as long as I’ve been doing this, I still feel like we have not reached as many people as we could. Often times, I feel like if people just knew what the need is or if we could make that ask, that they would be willing to support it and be willing to help. That falls on me. That falls on our board. That falls on our campaign chairs, all to make that outreach to advocate for what we’re doing and to make that ask and ask for that support.”
The next big bump in fundraising will come for the Price Is United event on February 24th. Tables for the event are still on sale. You can order tickets or a table by visiting prairielandunitedway.org or call 217-245-4557.