By TRACEY DRURY
tdrury@bizjournals.com | 716-541-1609

United Way leaders are optimistic but cautious about the year to come.

More important, they are hopeful about a new, five-year strategic plan and a commitment to continued efforts to improve the agency in the coming year.

That was the message Nov. 10 from the United Way of Buffalo & Erie County, where President Michael Weiner and Board Chairman Robert Zak presented the agency's annual report to the community. It outlined the organization's key accomplishments over the past year and the outcomes achieved through United Way-funded programs in education, income and health and wellness; detailed the new strategic plan; and talked about how United Way will work toward relevance, coalition building and accountability in the coming year.

The presentation also included demonstrations of individuals living the agency's credo: Live United, which includes giving, volunteering and advocating.

Among the achievements in the past year are enhancements to its marketing communication efforts, both internally and externally, as well as expansion of volunteer programs. Those include training opportunities and the introduction of a new family volunteer program. About 67 families and nearly 200 individuals participated in the first Family Volunteer Day, which helped connect families and children to volunteer opportunities in the community in the hope they would find a cause they believe in, while showing kids the importance of volunteering.

The United Way also worked this year at coalition building, renewing its presence among other community organizations and reaching out to government, foundations and other nonprofit organizations.

Other achievements came on the fiscal side, with the elimination of a $900,000-plus operating deficit and a coinciding $74,000 surplus; and reduced administrative and overhead costs. Weiner also pointed to the agency's effort to push programs back out to independent providers into the community, including shifting the Closing the Gap program to Catholic Charities.

Moving forward, the organization has made changes to how it runs its annual campaign, which will help not only the United Way but providers that receive funding through the Community Care fund.

"There isn't a not-for-profit that I don't speak to every day that isn't feeling challenged by a reduction in allocations through foundations, United Way, government funding and increased demand for service," Weiner says.

Already, the campaign seems to be doing better than at this point last year: More than $6.4 million has been collected since the campaign began Aug. 18, putting receipts at 47 percent of the $13.5 million goal. That's $1.4 million ahead of this time last year, when the campaign raised a total of $13.27 million. It's also running 8 percent ahead of receipts from companies that gave last year.

Weiner says while the early numbers are encouraging, he is hesitant to get too optimistic.

"It's too early to do any projections on how we will finish the year," he says. "It helps to be in a little more favorable economy than last year, and we started the campaign earlier this year."

The five-year plan also has a goal of achieving a 2015 campaign goal of $14.7 million.