CHENANGO COUNTY — Chenango United Way hit the 70 percent mark of its Fall 2018 campaign this week, but still has a ways to go in a short amount of time to fund 23 community organizations next year.

With less than two weeks remaining in the 2018 campaign, Chenango United Way is still $100,000 short of its goal of $419,000, which will be used to fund the same 23 organizations as last year.

“There’s still a real, true concern that we’re going to fall short,” said CUW Fall 2018 campaign co-chair Kelly Collins-Colosi. “It is not where we hoped the campaign to be as we sit and talk about it on the 18th of December.”

Last year the Chenango United Way began multi-year funding for the first time, guaranteeing 23 community organizations funding for two years. CUW Executive Director/CPO Elizabeth Monaco said these organizations have submitted program outcomes and budgets based on the guarantee of that money, but if the campaign doesn’t reach its goal, some of the programs won’t be funded.

“So it’s different, we’re not waiting to review applications and see what’s going to happen,” said Monaco. “We already know who we’re going to fund, they’re waiting to see if they’re going to be able to serve those people again next year. So the pressure is different this year because what we don’t make, they’re not going to get.”

Adding to the stress of this year’s campaign, Monaco said, is CUW was notified last week that the IRT program will return to Norwich in Summer 2019, and CUW is tasked with spearheading the operation. She said it costs about $30,000 to run the IRT, but noted their focus at the moment is satisfying the campaign goal.