Giving to United Way is continuing to shrink.

Ten years ago, the umbrella charity could raise at least $20 million between Labor Day and Thanksgiving through its workplace campaign to benefit nonprofit partners.

Now the group that serves the Richmond-Petersburg region has to run a 10-month campaign to raise far less.

While United Way of Greater Richmond & Petersburg still has not released final figures for the 2014-15 campaign that closed June 30, preliminary figures indicate the group received about $11.5 million in pledges from individuals, businesses and government entities.

That’s about $2 million less than the $13.6 million United Way reported raising in the 2013-14 campaign and 40 percent less than in 2006. United Way also receives additional funds from grants and from interest on investments.

The drop in giving is impacting United Way grants. The money comes from givers who donate to United Way’s community chest for the group to divvy up, rather than designating their gifts for a specific charity that United Way passes on.

Last year, United Way opened up its applications to community nonprofits. After nearly a year of review, United Way awarded $4.1 million to 63 community organizations. The awards ranged from $25,000 to $289,000.

While each of the grants was welcomed by the winning nonprofit agencies as important financial backing for specific programs, the small grants mean that all of those winning nonprofits, and dozens of others that applied and lost out, must do far more fundraising on their own.

Richmond’s United Way was founded in 1911. The goal then and now was for the group to serve as a central place for people to give to charity, and thus reduce the number of organizations pleading for help.

Now more than a century later, amid the rise of social networking and crowd sourcing, the organization appears to have become an also-ran in raising donations and increasingly irrelevant.

At this point, United Way leaders are hoping that James L.M. Taylor can turn things around.

Mr. Taylor has been named the new president and CEO of the regional umbrella charity. He will assume his new post Monday, Aug. 31, just in time for the start of the 2015-16 campaign.

He brings 11 years of experience as CEO of the United Way of Greater Lafayette, the second largest United Way in Indiana.

“His strong record of innovative accomplishments in community impact and resource development, coupled with his leadership skills, make him the right person to lead our United Way,” Channing Martin, chairman of the board of the Richmond United Way, stated in announcing the new CEO.

He sounds promising but the proof of his ability will be determined by his success in fundraising.

Mr. Taylor will take over from interim CEO Barry Taylor, retired president of the YMCA of Greater Richmond, who will stay on to assist in the transition.

Barry Taylor filled in following the departure of Lynn Pharr, who left in February for a job in Kansas after nearly three years in Richmond.

The incoming CEO expressed “excitement” about his new position in Richmond.

“I look forward to working with the board, volunteers, staff and the broader community to improve lives throughout the region,” Mr. Taylor stated in a release.

He will be paid around $200,000 a year.