The survey found that 69 percent of 800 agencies surveyed received funding cuts last year, and 80 percent reported increased demand for assistance. Many agencies' funding shrank for the fifth straight year.
More than half the agencies said they had laid off workers.
"We need to remember budget cuts don't happen in a vacuum," said Tony Ross, president of the United Way of Pennsylvania. "Significant reductions in funding have broken important pieces of the safety net."
EducationWorks, a New Jersey-based organization that provides before- and after-school programs in Chester and Philadelphia, lost $1 million in state aid last year that had helped pay for tutoring for at-risk ninth graders.
As a result, the agency had to reduce the number of schools it serves in Philadelphia from 19 to four, and the number of students served from 4,000 to 800.
Last year 80 percent of the youngsters in the program passed English and math courses, said executive director Martin Friedman. "The hardest thing to swallow is that [the funding cut] had such a huge impact on those most likely to drop out," he said.
As the governor and legislature gear up for the year's budget negotiations, social services advocates say they will argue that investing a relatively small amount on the front end - such as helping people pay mortgages so they can stay in their homes, or subsidizing child care so parents can go to work - means less cost on the back end in the form of homeless shelters, nursing homes, and jails.
"It's a vicious cycle," said Ross, who ticked off other examples such as the $10 million Homeowner Emergency Mortgage Assistance program that was zeroed out, and an emergency home-repair program that allowed the elderly to stay in their homes that was also cut.
"The loss of those funds is causing more people going into shelter programs and nursing homes," he said.
Funding for the Human Services Development Fund - which funnels money to counties for a variety of needs - has plummeted from $42 million in 2003 to $14 million 2011-12.
That means less money for the state's food pantries, which are reporting a 20 percent increase in need.
To meet that demand with fewer dollars, pantries are rationing food - or, as one provider put it, "giving people less so that everyone can have something."
Jill Michal, president of United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania, said that agencies were already operating on a shoestring and that the laces were frayed.
"Everybody understands the need for a balanced budget," she said. "But you have to balance that with quality of life and the need to invest in what works."
Contract Amy Worden at 717-783-2584 or aworden@phillynews.com, or on Twitter @inkyamy.
