The United Way of Butler County expects to come up short this year.

Its campaign for 2013-2014, which will end June 30, is projected to fall at least $200,000 short of its $1.6 million goal and $100,000 behind last year’s campaign.

Executive director Leslie Osche said this morning there are a couple major corporate campaigns down this year, but wouldn’t specify which companies.

Osche said the employee contributions through those corporations were the biggest hits.

About 4,500 employees make annual contributions to the United Way.

Osche said a variety of factors led to the shortfall through employee contributions, including workers leaving their job and a change in demographics in employees.

“Young people have a different mindset and our traditional model (of fundraising) doesn’t work as well for them,” Osche said. “Millennials want to be more engaged, that’s why we’re turning to a community impact model.”

To combat the projected shortfall this year, a final appeal is under way to donors and the community to extend their giving to help United Way and its partners to continue services such as early education programming, child care and affordable utility programs.

“We’re reaching out to every donor we have,” Osche said, adding the agency is using social media, e-mail and postcards to attract attention to the fundraising push.

Officials worry the shortfall will limit United Way’s ability to meet its goals in education, financial stability and connecting people to services.

Osche said afterschool educational programs would see less funding as well as child care assistance programs.

For the 2012-2013 campaign, the United Way raised $1.48 million, which also was $200,000 short of its $1.68 million goal. At the time, Osche said there was a loss of a significant gift from a corporate sponsor.

The United Way over the past two years has made investments to enhance fundraising capabilities, grant management and ways to connect people to services.

Those investments were made without adjusting the dollars given to community partners, which led to two years of significant losses.

Because of the decrease in donations, the United Way is planning to make one-time reductions to agency grants that are normally awarded on a two-year cycle. The overall reduction to grants is 40 percent, but those reductions will not be made across the board to all organizations.

Agency directors will meet Tuesday to discuss impact and fundraising goals and plans. Then there will be an annual meeting with agency directors and their board chairs on June 19.

The annual meeting will be different this year, according to a news release. It will involve only partner agency directors and board members who will discuss the development of fundraising plans and goals.