Winnipeg’s philanthropic sector is under pressure from both sides, with demand for aid growing and the number of donors available to meet the need dwindling.
The imbalance is increasingly borne by a relatively small group of donors with deep pockets. Last year, 600 people – about three per cent of United Way Winnipeg’s individual donors – accounted for approximately $8 million, or 55 per cent of individual giving.
Fundraising doesn’t get any easier.
BROOKE JONES / FREE PRESS FILES United Way Winnipeg President and CEO Matthew Cutler says the charity’s donor base has declined significantly over several decades.
Homelessness and drug use in the community are becoming increasingly visible, household budgets remain strained, and the problems that charities are trying to solve can seem so entrenched that donors may reasonably wonder what good another contribution can do.
As United Way Winnipeg launches its 105th annual campaign on Friday, the nonprofit’s leaders don’t believe the city’s desire to help has waned.
“Winnipeggers are already excited about this,” said campaign co-chair Anne Mahon. “Because they see. It’s obvious.”
The goal, she says, is to give people a sense of agency—to get them to stop seeing the problems around them and to believe that they can play a role in solving them.
This has become even more difficult as United Way’s donor base has shrunk significantly in recent decades. President and CEO Matthew Cutler said about 100,000 people contributed annually generations ago, when Winnipeg was much smaller. Today that number is about 24,000.
Cutler and campaign co-chairs Anne and Paul Mahon don’t believe Winnipeggers are any less generous.
More charities are competing for donations, family finances have become tighter, and the workplace connections that have historically fueled United Way campaigns have been disrupted during the COVID-19 pandemic. Wealth is also becoming increasingly concentrated.
“If you think about wealth, there’s more inequality in wealth today than when your parents were growing up and starting out… We’d say it was more of a middle-class city and a middle-class country if you go back to the ’60s,” Paul Mahon said.
“Now we really have a sort of bifurcation of wealth: a lot more wealth among fewer people, and a lot more people struggling.”
Large donors now account for about 36 per cent of the funds United Way Winnipeg raises and about 56 per cent of non-corporate donations, Paul said.
The organization cannot rely on this group alone, he said. Many small individual gifts add up, and today’s first-time donors are viewed as potential major donors of the future, making broader participation critical to sustaining the organization through generational change.
There’s another challenge: convincing people that their contributions matter when the problems around them worsen.
Cutler believes society has become more aware of the complexities of homelessness, addiction and poverty, including the role of housing, economics, mental health, racism and colonization.
“And that’s a huge win,” Cutler said. “It’s important that our starting point now is to understand that this is difficult.”
But complexity can also breed hopelessness.
“When you see the complexity of a problem, it’s daunting and exhausting, and it’s easy to test,” he said.
RUTH BONVILLE / FREE PRESS FILES Louise Simbandumwe, co-director of SEED Winnipeg, an organization that helps low-income Manitobans develop skills, says the organization is turning away hundreds of people.
The answer, Cutler argues, is not to find one organization, program or major investment that can fix everything.
“There was nothing that led to the person who is now on the street in front of me living the life that they lead,” he says. “There were thousands of little things done by individuals and systems that led to this. And it is thousands of little things done by individuals and systems that will get us out of this.”
However, in order to convince donors of the importance of their contribution, it is necessary to show them what happens with their money.
Paul Mahon said the United Way can seem like a “black box” to some – unlike other charities, money raised for the community fund does not stay with the organization. Instead, donations are distributed to support more than 125 agencies that are not necessarily visible to every Winnipegger.
“There is a risk that not enough people truly understand the positive impact that the community fund has every day in our city,” he said. “If every Winnipegger had the opportunity to visit a United Way agency and see the impact, we would truly expand our base. When you see the work in person, you can’t help but want to be a part of it.”
United Way says one in three Winnipeggers receive support through its network of funded agencies, with someone seeking help on average every 12 seconds.
However, for the agencies receiving this money, stable funding does not mean meeting demand.
SEED Winnipeg, a not-for-profit organization that helps low-income Manitobans develop skills, served more than 18,000 people last year, helping them access more than $46 million in income and benefits through tax filing and benefits navigation.
However, the organization turns away 100 to 200 people each week because SEED simply doesn’t have enough staff or meetings to accommodate everyone.
“It’s heartbreaking,” said SEED co-director Louise Simbandumwe. “And winter is coming. We have people starting to line up outside our doors an hour early. They’re walking here. They’re coming here on buses. And actually having to let them go – it’s really hard.”
Appointments open Monday morning and can be fully booked within 15 or 20 minutes, she said.
However, there are also signs of what “absolutely important” sustainable investments can achieve.
Simbandumwe said 42 percent of SEED staff and 57 percent of board members are former program participants, while others have gone on to lead community organizations or work for donors who support them.
Much of United Way’s contribution to these organizations happens behind the scenes. Unlike grants that are limited to a specific project, most of its support is flexible core funding, typically awarded for a period of three to five years.
Cutler said stability allows organizations to continue operating even if government or foundation grants end, while giving them the flexibility to respond to changing needs.
MICHAELA MCKENZIE / FREE PRESS FILES Anne Mahon doesn’t believe people’s desire to help others has diminished.
“Many executive directors shared that this means they can sleep easy at night knowing that if the three applications they submitted for government or foundation funding don’t go through, they know they can at least keep the doors open tomorrow with United Way funding,” he says.
Teen Stop Jeunesse Executive Director Kelly-Ann Reyes knows what that stability can achieve in the long term.
The United Way funding is a “game changer,” she said, allowing the Winnipeg youth center to direct money where it’s needed most, retain staff and build relationships with youth. About 90 percent of its employees are former participants in its programs.
Reyes said impact is ultimately measured by the people who walk through the agency’s doors.
“In my opinion, we are only as strong as the person who struggles the most,” Reyes said. “And so when we invest in those who need that support, we make the community stronger for all of us.”
Despite the difficult fundraising situation, Cutler and the Mahons say there is reason for optimism.
Winnipeg continues to lead other United Way branches across Canada in terms of donations relative to the size of its economy, Cutler said. Hundreds of volunteers participate in workplace campaigns, and dozens more help collect donations and organize this year’s campaign.
“Part of the compassion fatigue and part of the apathy is just a sense of isolation and what can actually be done?” said Anne Mahon. “But there are a lot of great things being done.”
Cutler sees the campaign as an opportunity to restore some of the community ties that have weakened over time.
This could mean providing what someone can afford, volunteering, or simply becoming more involved in the community.
“We all just need to do a little more, and if we all do a little more, our city will be a lot better.”
scott.billeck@freepress.mb.ca
Scott Billeck
Reporter
Scott Billeck – general assignment reporter Free press. A graduate of Red River College’s Creative Communications Department, Scott has over a decade of experience covering hockey, soccer and global pandemics. He joined the Free Press in 2024. Learn more about Scott.
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