BSA, United Way part ways

After a nearly 60-year partnership, United Way of Odessa and the Buffalo Trail Council of the Boy Scouts of America have parted ways this fiscal year following a spat over reduced funding.

The breakup came as a surprise to both organizations and has prompted Scout leaders to launch what they called an “urgent” fundraising campaign in Ector County to recoup thousands of dollars they expected to receive from United Way. Scout leaders said the unexpected loss of funding, if unabated, could cause a budget shortfall that would imperil certain Scouting programs in Ector County.

A somewhat bitter back and forth between the organizations began this summer after United Way offered the Buffalo Trail Council a grant of $10,000, a fraction of the amount the Scouts have received in previous years.

During the past 10 years, Buffalo Trail Council officials have banked on an annual grant of at least $40,000 from the United Way of Odessa. The council received $50,000 last year — or about 8 percent of its budget for Ector County Boy Scouts — and expected to receive a comparable amount this year, Scout leaders said.

United Way officials pointed out that the organization this year received about $400,000 more in requests for funding than money it had on hand to allocate to partner agencies. But it was also clear that a panel of United Way volunteers and board members who consider the annual requests for funding was unimpressed with the Scouts’ pitch this year.

In a letter offering the $10,000 grant, United Way officials informed Scout leaders they would need to improve, among other things, on their accounting of United Way funds received in previous years “in order to secure and or increase funding for programs in the upcoming years.”

“It was just the general consensus of the board that the information was not there that told them how the monies would be used to the benefit of the boys of Ector County,” said Tom Pursel, executive director of United Way of Odessa. “It was a reduction from previous years, and it was one I assume that they did not believe they could live with.”

In June, the Buffalo Trail Council responded to the United Way, explaining the predicament Scout leaders faced. While they were appreciative of the $10,000, Scout leaders feared the “diminished allocation” would inevitably lead to a budget shortfall.

“We have limited resources and, like most nonprofits in this area, are operating under a tight budget,” Lyman Gifford, Scout executive of the Buffalo Trail Council, said in a phone interview.

Scout leaders requested United Way redesignate the grant as an “unrestricted gift,” a move that would have allowed the Buffalo Trail Council to sidestep United Way’s “blackout dates,” a three-month period during the United Way fundraising campaign in which partner agencies are forbidden from conducting any independent fundraising.

“We very much want to accept the United Way of Odessa allocation,” Scout leaders wrote in their letter. “However, doing so would restrict us from raising funds to cover the loss from the reduced allocation — funds necessary to the maintenance of our services.”

In the same letter, Scout leaders also requested United Way “remove all references in all of your printed and electronic materials to the Boy Scouts of America and the Buffalo Trail Council as an Odessa United Way agency.”

“The use of these references severely hinders our ability to independently raise the necessary funds,” the Scout leaders wrote.

A week later, United Way withdrew its offer of $10,000 altogether, saying in a second letter to Buffalo Trail Council officials that it would not make an exception to the blackout period.

“What they would be doing was competing against us during the time we’d be soliciting money for them,” Pursel said. “The people in the businesses get hit up by us and an agency that we support, and it becomes confusing for them.”

Pursel said “it was a shock to us when (the Buffalo Trail Council) turned down the funding.” He also took issue with the Scouts’ fundraising mailer that states “the United Way of Odessa will not fund the Buffalo Trail Council” this year, with no mention of United Way’s initial offer of $10,000.

“I certainly would have not written it that way,” Pursel said of the letter that went out to many in Ector County.

Gifford, however, maintained that the Scouts “didn’t turn down (United Way’s) offer.”

“We understand that they have the right to decide, it just caught us off guard,” Gifford said, standing by the fundraising letter. “We were surprised by the whole thing.”

Meanwhile, Gifford said Scout leaders have sought to minimze the impact on local Scouting by raising additional funds. He said mailers were sent to “the majority of people in Ector County” soliciting donations.

While Scout leaders hope to replace the funds, Gifford said some after-school programs could be on the chopping block in the event of a budget shorfall. Another possibility, he said, could be to close the Buffalo Trail Council satellite office in Odessa, though Gifford said that option seems unlikely.

“That’s a decision that will be made if we get to that point,” Gifford said.

United Way has welcomed the Scouts to apply for future grants, but Gifford said he doesn’t know yet whether they will seek any funding from the organization down the road.

“I don’t have an answer for that at this point,” Gifford said.