Lack of funds sinks Volunteer Hamilton

For 55 years, agency encouraged thousands to give of themselves

Volunteer Hamilton is shutting its doors because of a lack of funding.

The non-profit organization will close at the end of the month after having served the community for almost 55 years, said board chair Sam Cino.

“We’ve been hanging on for the past couple of years, trying to make it work,” he said Monday.

But at a Dec. 8 meeting of the membership, a motion was passed to cease operations and dissolve the corporation.

“It’s just a symptom of what’s happening in the community,” Cino said.

“What we’re going through is what a lot of other organizations have been struggling with.”

Volunteer Hamilton matches people interested in volunteering with its member agencies.

The majority of those agencies are smaller not-for-profit organizations that don’t have the resources to actively recruit volunteers, said Cino.

Several years ago, the organization saw its major funding cut in half, he said.

In 2014, they had a yearly budget of about $250,000 and three fulltime staff.

By 2016-17, that number had decreased to $25,000 in provincial funding, $57,000 from the United Way Halton & Hamilton, plus a grant from the city and membership fees.

Cino said they were also down to two part-time contract employees.

The board has been looking for alternatives over the last two years, but three months ago, they were notified they would be losing their main source of funding, he said.

But the organization does not blame its funders, Cino said. “They’re strapped,” he said. “They were very supportive along the way, but the reality is their hands have been tied, too.”

A representative from the local United Way could not be reached for comment late Monday.

But in 2014, a representative confirmed funding to all organizations the agency supported had been cut over the past two years and that the United Way had given Volunteer Hamilton $57,000 for the 2014-15 financial year.

Currently, Volunteer Hamilton has almost 130 agencies as members.

On average, more than 2,000 people applied for volunteer opportunities through the organization each year, and more than 1,000 youth participated in the organization’s annual Change the World Challenge.

Hamilton is home to more than 280,000 volunteers, giving it one of the highest volunteer rates in the country at around 58 per cent.

“I’d like to think that Volunteer Hamilton has played a big part in that success, along with a number of other community organizations,” Cino said.

While people are more resourceful now in finding their own placements, the closure of the organization means the loss of a “central point of access” for those looking to access and provide opportunities, he noted.

“The result was not the result we would have liked but certainly it was done in a very supportive manner with other community partners,” Cino said.

“Collectively, we’ve all given it a really, really good shot, but unfortunately, this is the end result.”