United Way and Kalamazoo Community Foundation to offer a $4 Million "lifeline" for needy residents

United Way and Kalamazoo Community Foundation to offer a $4 Million "lifeline" for needy residents

From the Kalamazoo Gazette:

Major individual and family donors to the Kalamazoo Community Foundation and the Greater Kalamazoo United Way will contribute an additional $4 million over the next three years to provide a “lifeline” to Kalamazoo County residents who lack food, shelter and medical care.

In what is likely a first in Michigan, the two charitable fundraising organizations announced today that a quiet campaign launched last summer will provide $2 million this year and $1 million in both 2011 and 2012 to local non-profits that will use the money to provide basic human needs.

The $4 million is in addition to money the donors have committed to the foundation and United Way over the next several years, said Michael J. Larson, president and chief executive officer of the Greater Kalamazoo United Way.

Olivarez said the first round of funding should be out in the community by May 1.

The two charity leaders said Kalamazoo County’s human toll in the sharp economic downturn shifted the emphasis for this program from creating long-term sustainability to providing immediate relief.

“We’ve been looking at programs that help people become employable, to get jobs, that help them learn how to fish (to be self-sustaining),” Olivarez said. “Right now we realize a lot of people just need a fish. Both of those things have to happen, but this piece is to get that fish out now to the people who are hungry.”

For more information on donating to Lifeline Initiative, contact:

Mark Crail
Greater Kalamazoo United Way
mcrail@gkuw.org
(269) 343-2524, ext. 226
or
Ann Fergemann
Kalamazoo Community Foundation
afergemann@kalfound.org
(269) 381-4416

Tax-deductible donations may be made payable to either organization, with the designation “Lifeline Initiative” on the check. Send to:

Kalamazoo Community Foundation
151 S. Rose St.
Kalamazoo, MI 49007
or
Greater Kalamazoo United Way
709 S. Westnedge Ave.
Kalamazoo, MI 49007

Read the Full Article:

http://www.mlive.com/news/kalamazoo/index.ssf/2010/02/4_million_will_become_a_lifeli.html