NORWICH—Contrary to a much doubted outcome just a week ago, organizers of the Chenango United Way's annual campaign signaled that it has met its goal of securing nearly $420,000 in solicited donations from a long list of Chenango county businesses, individuals and government entities.

For the United Way, this year's funding initiative has been a bit of an uphill battle, and as of just two weeks ago the campaign was $50,000 short due to decreased campaign participation in most of our corporate employee campaigns.

“Employees were much more cautious in giving this year,” said CUW Executive Director Elizabeth Monaco. “We don’t know if it was the economy or the political environment or the amount of difficult issues facing our community, but we saw our many of our large corporate campaign struggle this year in ways that they have not struggled in previous years.”

As of Thursday evening, Jan. 12, United Way campaign contributions were tallied at $419,465, unexpectedly surpassing this year's goal of $419,000. In 2015, the campaign managed to raise $414,502.