United Way Toronto sets fundraising goal of $117 million

That’s the goal the charity umbrella announced and met in 2013, and while CEO Susan McIsaac said she thinks Torontonians might contribute more, the organization wants to be realistic.

"The team felt most comfortable at $117 million, so there we are," she said after people standing on a running track above the midtown centre’s gym turned over red placards to show the cheering crowd a dollar sign, two ones, a seven and six zeros.

On stage, she said the United Way – with its 200 community agencies, 23,000 volunteers, and 700 workplace campaigns – needs support as much as ever.

"We believe we can do even more, that we can make this city even better, that this city is filled with possibilities," she said, adding Toronto’s residents, "no matter what their postal code," deserve a chance for a better life.

This year’s fall campaign will use "possibility" as its theme: The word is hopeful and signals progress is within reach, McIsaac said.

"It empowers us to act. It actually compels us to act."

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• Dec 31, 1969
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Everybody in the room had a story about how a United Way agency has helped them or someone they know, said Ellen Cole, executive director of the JCC, which was one of United Way’s 14 original agencies in 1956.

"It’s a stunning call to arms," Cole said of the latest fundraising goal.

"This is a big number," she said, pointing at it on one of the room’s large screens, "but we’re a big community and Toronto is bigger and better because of the United Way."

Funds the fall campaign gather will go to subsidizing memberships so that everybody can afford to use the recently-refurbished gym, which volunteers had decorated for the launch event with banners from the Thorncliffe Neighbourhood Office, Youthlink, Family Service Toronto and other agencies.

"Adam Sandler was shooting hoops here last week," added Cole, who said United Way money also supports children’s camps, as well as seniors’ and after-school programs at the JCC.

Jamila Aman, executive director of Northwood Neighbourhood Services, a multi-service settlement agency on Weston Road, said the campaign means members of her community won’t be left behind.

"This number also means we have to work harder so United Way can reach their goal," she said. "Always, the need in our community exceeds our resources."

A United Way agency since 1986, Northwood has only one funding source paying its utility costs and rent, "so if not for the United Way, we cannot even leverage other funding," said Aman.

The charity umbrella also fills in funding gaps for JobStart, which has two Etobicoke offices offering employment, community and settlement help to anyone who wants a job.

The agency served more than 4,000 people last year – newcomers, youth, students – said its executive director, Heather Sant.

Sharon Shelton of Tropicana Community Services said the campaign helps her Scarborough-based agency, which opens its new headquarters building on Sept. 26, expand its programming and plan better. "For us, the United Way is the pot of funding that allows us to do a lot of what we want to do."

The annual campaign raised $116 million in 2012, much more than the $58 million it gathered in 1998, before United Way turned more attention to Toronto’s inner suburbs and helped organize a joint approach with the province and city in bringing improvements to what were known as priority neighbourhoods.

With a new strategic plan this year, the organization moving to a new model of investing in its agencies and setting up community-wide goals, said McIsaac, adding United Way wiill work closely with Ontario’s government on its new poverty-reduction strategy, and with the city on what it now calls neighbourhood improvement areas.

"We are aligned on the work," she said.