By Dan Klepal
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Donations to the United Way & Community Chest are off by about $1 million compared with last year, and the campaign drive officially ends tonight.

That could spell trouble for some of the 160 organizations in eight Tristate counties that look to the United Way for funding during the year.

Last year, the campaign drive raised $60.8 million. The agency was shooting for $62 million when the fund-raising drive started this year.

Now officials will be happy to equal last year's total.

United Way President Robert Reifsnyder said United Way drives are even more important in tough economic times, when city and county governments are cutting programs.

"The difficult part of this is at a time when others are cutting back funding, and when government understandably has to cut back, more people are turning to agencies for services," Mr. Reifsnyder said.

Even the estimate that donations will be down by only $1 million is tenuous, since that includes donations from companies that have held fund-raising drives but have not delivered the donations yet. But Mr. Reifsnyder said there will not be across-the-board cuts, that each program will be evaluated individually when balancing next year's budget.

That process could take until the end of the year.

Anyone interested in contributing to the United Way can do so by calling 762-7100. All donations made by 5 p.m. today will count toward the agency's budget next year.

E-mail dklepal@enquirer.com