Sometimes the raw numbers don’t tell the whole story and can be misleading.

When people hear that the United Way of the River Cities fell more than $300,000 short of its $1.4 million fundraising goal last year they may make the mistake of being overwhelmed by the high dollar amount.

“Oh well,” they might say. “They still have plenty of money to work with.”

But that isn’t true, as the organization has seen needs in the Tri-State grow almost daily, especially last year as the economy suffered and job loss grew at a rapid pace.

Instead of looking at the overall money raised, we challenge everyone to look at what agencies will be affected by this lack of funding. Dozens of agencies that provide a variety of community services will see their already tight budgets shrink even more.

Right here in Lawrence County, 10 agencies will receive less than last year.

These include: The City Welfare Mission, Special Olympics, Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts, the Ironton-Lawrence County Community Action Organization, the Red Cross and the Chesapeake Community Center, just to name a few.

All these organizations and agencies provide important services. Each will now attempt to do so with less money.

United Way officials had the tough task of determining what agencies were cut and by how much. This process will not ever make everyone happy but the surest way to prevent this from happening again is to support the organization that leverages all donated funds to make them go farther than they would otherwise be possible.

And you don’t have to wait for a fundraising campaign to lend a hand. The United Way will always accept donations.

Every dollar that the United Way comes up short translates to people who won’t get the services they need.