Needed: $32,000 in less than 30 days.

That is what the Elizabethton/Carter County United Way has left to raise to meet their $165,000 goal for the 2015 campaign.

So far, the local United Way has raised $128,000, or 80 percent of the campaign goal, ECCUW Director Cheri Tinney said.

Collecting the remainder of the campaign goal is doable. In order to meet the goal, she has calculated that 320 people would need to contribute $100; 640 people would need to donate $50; or yet another configuration – 3,200 people could donate $10 each.

If every person living in Carter County only contributed $1, she said, the United Way would meet their goal and exceed it by 50 percent.

“Every little bit helps,” Tinney said. “It doesn’t have to be a large contribution. It can be whatever is affordable. All contributions are tax-deductible.”

Since the United Way has started focusing on the outstanding goal balance at the beginning of the year, around 40 percent has been collected.

“It has trickled in, and that is great,” Tinney said. “We are hoping we will close at the campaign with at least 85 percent raised, but it would be wonderful to raise 100 percent.”

If the United Way is able to collect 85 percent or more of the goal, then the agencies will be funded at a “significant level” of their needed amounts.

“This is important because these agencies rely on our funding to meet the needs of the community,” Tinney said. “If we are not able to fund them at the level they need then their services may have to be changed.”

The United Way also plans to extend services through the community if more funding is gained through the campaign,” Tinney said.

“If we have the additional funding, we would like to have some set aside for community development,” she said. “We want to help the community as a whole, not just the clients who are seeking help from the agencies.”

Agencies for the 2015 campaign are Adult Day Services, American Red Cross, Assistance and Resource Ministries, Boys & Girls Club of Elizabethton, Personal Support Service, Contact Ministries, Elizabethton Senior Citizens Center, Sequoyah Council Boy Scouts and the Neighborhood Service Center.

Of the money raised, almost all of what is collected goes directly back to the agencies supported by the United Way, Tinney said.

The 2015 campaign ends on March 30. Donations to the United Way can be made by contacting Tinney at 543-6975. Contributions can also be made online at http://www.uwayecc.org/ or mailed to United Way of Elizabethton/Carter County, PO Box 1715, Elizabethton, TN  37643.