Barnyard wisdom advises that when the livestock fails to gain weight, the farmer can’t fix things by getting a new set of scales.

Yet that appears to be what’s happening at the United Way of Butler County.

The charitable agency fell nearly one-third short of its 2015-16 campaign goal of $1.43 million. It met the previous campaign’s goal of $1.425 million.

The campaign won’t fall short again in 2016-17. It’s guaranteed not to — because it isn’t setting any goal at all.

The United Way is shifting to an issue-based focus, says executive director Kierston Hobaugh, explaining why the group would not announce a fundraising goal for its current campaign.

She addressed the shift, which the United Way announced this spring, in comments last week during the United Way’s annual meeting.

“We want to be able to show the community ‘here’s how we’re helping people,’ not just ‘here’s how much money we raised,’” Hobaugh said.

The shift represents a radical departure from conventional fundraising.

A typical fundraising campaign begins and ends with a goal — a specific sum of money or other resource to address a community need while challenging a community’s capacity for taking care of its own.

When the campaign goal is achieved, it’s a cause for celebration. When it’s not met, the shortfall can increase a community’s resolve to do better the following year.

But how will it work under a new system?

The United Way has hired a consultant, Perspectives Consulting of Michigan, which will help identify one single issue to highlight and have a plan developed for the transition.

Look around, pick an issue if you can. But what does a youth program have to do with treating drug abuse; or a senior citizen program have to do with child care? We have a multitude of agencies because there are a multitude of issues.

But they will press on with their central issue, and there will be some measure of accountability incorporated, maybe the total number of encounters with a client at each agency.

United Way member agencies will be expected to keep track of these encounters and base their record-keeping on them. Of course, they’ll still have bills and payrolls and budgets to keep — but these just won’t be the focus of United Way funding anymore.

The net result will be more paperwork — compilations of these new standards of success for the United Way in addition to the reliable old financial standards for everybody else — expected from agencies that are strapped for resources. Staff members will have to devote more time preparing compliance paperwork for United Way dollars and fewer hours actually serving clients’ needs.

And the consulting firm from Michigan will expect to be paid its $24,450 fee the old-fashioned way: in cash.

When the cows are lean and hungry, it’s hardly the time to worry about buying new scales.

Neither is it the time for those who are entrusted with this community asset to alter its focus from dollars to a single issue.