Southeast Missouri nonprofits facing growing demand as funding challenges continue

FOX23 News at 9 p.m

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) — Nonprofit organizations across Southeast Missouri say they are facing growing community needs while continuing to navigate limited funding and resources.

United Way of Southeast Missouri recently announced its latest round of community funding, supporting programs across Cape Girardeau, Jackson, Scott City, Perry County and Bollinger County. Leaders say the funding comes at a time when many organizations are seeing more people turn to community services for help.

“All nonprofits across the country, but certainly here in southeast Missouri, are seeing greater need, especially as costs continue to increase and affordability continues to decrease,” said Elizabeth Shelton, executive director of United Way of Southeast Missouri. “As cuts are being made at the federal and state level in budgets, that’s falling on nonprofits to pick up the slack.”

United Way officials said the organization recently shifted to a two-year funding cycle focused on helping working families and individuals move from ‘striving to thriving.’ According to the organization, 32 applications were reviewed during this year’s funding process, including nine first-time applicants who presented their programs to volunteers, donors and board members.

Shelton said many organizations are also experiencing financial challenges of their own, including declining donations and fewer available grants.

“We have more organizations requesting funding, and we have less funds right now to be able to help,” Shelton said.

Shelton also referenced recent national nonprofit survey data showing many organizations are struggling financially. According to Shelton, more than one-third of nonprofits surveyed experienced an operating deficit at the end of the year, while more than half reported having only a three-month supply of operating funds on hand.

“It’s not just for United Way,” Shelton said. “The last number I saw there were more than 800 nonprofits registered in Cape Girardeau County alone.”

Shelton said nonprofits are increasingly competing for limited donations while also seeing generational shifts in charitable giving.

“We as baby boomers continue to retire. They are the ones who grew up with that mindset of giving and tithing,” Shelton said. “The younger generations coming in are great about donating time. But if we don’t have programs that have the funds to run, there won’t be anything to donate time to.”

Shelton said volunteers ultimately decided to discontinue funding for some longtime larger organizations in order to invest in smaller programs where donations could have a greater immediate impact.

“The question we had to ask was: Will this program or organization still function without our support or can our help act as seed money to grow a critical program?” Shelton said.

One of the organizations receiving support is the Women’s Lighthouse Child Advocacy Center, which uses the funding to support prevention and education programs focused on healthy relationships and dating violence awareness among students.

“Receiving the funding from United Way goes towards funding my program, the education program, and that allows me to continue going out into the community and talking to students in all of our service area about healthy relationships, red flags, dating abuse, things like that,” a program representative said.

The organization said educators and counselors continue reporting concerns they are seeing among students, increasing the importance of those conversations.

“I definitely think that it’s a problem that’s not going away,” the representative said. “These conversations are so incredibly important so that these kids can ask questions and find out what’s normal, what’s not normal, what’s healthy and what’s not healthy.”

Shelton said nonprofits are increasingly seeing working families struggle financially, even while maintaining multiple jobs.

“What we are seeing — and other organizations are seeing — are working people who are working one, two, three jobs frequently and are barely getting by,” Shelton said. “We are trying to focus more of our programs at helping people who are doing all of the right things but are still struggling to survive.”

Shelton also emphasized the importance of continued community support and donations as organizations work to meet growing needs.

“We live in a very generous community, and we’re very grateful for that,” Shelton said. “But there is still a great deal of need.”

Organizations receiving support through the latest United Way funding cycle include:

• American Red Cross
• Big Brothers Big Sisters
• Boys & Girls Clubs
• Cape Girardeau Adult Education and Literacy
• Cape Girardeau Co-Responders Unit
• EPIC
• First Call For Help
• FosterAdopt Connect
• Jackson Senior Center
• Jobs for America’s Graduates
• Lutheran Family and Children’s Services
• Mississippi Valley Therapeutic Horsemanship
• Safe House of Southeast Missouri
• S.M.A.R.T. Senior Services
• Read to Succeed
• The Cottage Domestic Violence Shelter
• The Salvation Army
• United For Childcare
• United We Work
• Voices for Children/CASA

To learn more visit: UnitedWayofSemo.org or SemoSafehouse.org