Economic hardship means more people are in need of more services
Digging deeper in hard times for charity
The United Way of Buffalo and Erie County, which has experienced declining contributions since 2001, wants to raise $14.8 million by the end of the drive next month — $25,000 more than last year’s campaign.
The Buffalo City Mission usually strives for about $1.5 million in individual gifts through its fall appeal, but has upped the ante by nearly $1 million this year, anticipating a crushing need for more services for homeless and low-income people.
On top of its regular fundraising, the Buffalo chapter of the American Red Cross has been asked to raise $560,000 more for the national organization’s disaster relief fund, exhausted this past summer on hurricane and flooding relief.
The final two months of the year, prime giving season, are considered crucial for charitable organizations, and this year is no different.
“This is the most competitive time of the year,” said Nancy Blaschak, executive director of the Buffalo chapter of the Red Cross.
As nationwide economic uncertainty threatens to stifle giving, some of the area’s highest profile charitable organizations are asking donors to dig even deeper.
“From a business model, it doesn’t make sense to some degree,” said Eugene Meeks, president and chief executive officer of Child & Family Services, which provides a multitude of programs for children and parents. “But what we’ve been hearing is philanthropy does not necessarily follow that model.”
Many donors realize that difficult economic times are when they are needed most, said Meeks, whose agency is trying to raise $579,250 in private gifts this year, up from $420,250 in 2007-08.
Overall giving usually declines during recession or economic crisis. However, experts point out that most households still donate to charity in times of financial insecurity.
“It goes down a little bit, adjusted for inflation,” said Melissa S. Brown, associate director of research at the Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University, which conducts a variety of research on charitable giving.
A Giving USA Foundation study that analyzed trends over the past four decades showed that, adjusted for inflation, giving fell by an average of 1 percent in recession years.
“That’s not bad,” Brown said. “Recessions don’t cripple giving in total. Certainly there are always organizations that feel the pain, but frankly that’s true every year.”
The most recent recession was in 2001, following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, when giving dropped 2.2 percent.
A 2002 study of charitable giving in Erie County revealed that contributions here fell by more than 6 percent in 2001, and by 3 percent in 2002, before going up again in 2003.
Despite those past trends, local charities say they’re asking for more this year because the need is great.
Meals on Wheels of Western New York is making a last ditch appeal for another $67,500 before the end of the year — to cover the costs of providing 25,000 more meals than had been planned for the elderly and people with disabilities.
“It’s exacerbated by the fact that we’ve got a state budget crisis,” said Arlene F. Kaukus, president of United Way, which funds a variety of human service programs aimed at boosting families’ economic independence and improving early childhood education.
Some nonprofit groups that rely mostly on state grants and contracts and don’t normally conduct as much private fundraising are now trying to bolster their bottom lines through appeals to donors.
“Our private fundraising we would look at ramping up, but the economic reality is everybody’s being hit hard. Where do we go? To what well?” said Kevin Horrigan, spokesman for People Inc., which provides services for seniors and people with disabilities.
The downward momentum of the stock market has dampened prospects from even the biggest givers, such as private foundations that rely on investment income to make gifts.
“Everybody’s money is tighter. It’s not just individuals. It’s every foundation in town,” said Christopher Voltz, director of marketing and special projects for AIDS Community Services of Western New York.
At the same time, people who “were managing tenuously to take care of themselves are no longer able to do that,” Voltz said, citing increases in requests at the agency for such things as pantry and heating aid.
“It’s really a double-edged sword,” he said.
At the City Mission, a new shelter constructed in 2006 has helped the agency provide services for twice the number of women and children it used to serve. Yet, 70 to 100 families are still being turned away each month at Cornerstone Manor, which is constantly at capacity.
The men’s shelter was 90 percent full in the summer, normally the slowest time, and a yearlong transitional housing program that usually serves fewer than a dozen men currently has 45 enrolled, said Stuart Harper, the mission’s executive director.
“We go through those numbers, and it’s really scary,” he said.
At $5.2 million, the agency’s 2008-09 budget is smaller than the 2007-08 budget of $5.6 million, thanks to cost-saving techniques, such as a new partnership with Goodwill in salvaging used clothing.
But the mission must replace expired grants that had helped cover costs of about $1 million per year to operate the new, larger Cornerstone Manor. Thus, more of the cost of operating the shelter is falling on the generosity of donors.
The mission is aggressively pursuing new contributors. This year, it sent 214,538 mailings — a 12 percent increase over 2007 — to potential new donors and past donors who haven’t given in a while.
The United Way returned to tradition in this year’s campaign, which will wrap up next month. The past several years, the organization has let the appeal continue on until the close of its books in the spring.
It means there’s even more pressure to secure donations now — and the United Way has fewer staff people available this year for the task.
The organization cut 10 percent of its staff — eight employees — in two layoffs, the first in March and a second in August.
The layoffs haven’t hurt the campaign, said Kaukus, although she acknowledged that the amount of money raised so far was behind the pace of the previous campaign.
Other fundraisers said they were treading carefully.
The Red Cross, for example, typically seeks nearly $1 million in contributions for its Buffalo operations. The extra $560,000 needed for the national disaster relief fund, said Blaschak, is “just a very tough ask.”
Loyal donors might agree to support the national replenishment effort and then simply cut back on their donation to the local chapter.
The Salvation Army Buffalo Area Services sought to raise the same amount through its red kettle campaign, about $300,000, as it did in 2007.
“Three hundred thousand, plus, if we can get it,” said Maj. Robert Dixon, area coordinator.
The agency already is experiencing a 24 percent increase from 2007 in requests for food, and applications for its Christmas baskets grew from 1,200 in 2007 to 1,300 this year.
Asking might be more difficult, but charities can’t afford to go into a shell now, said Brown, who advises charities to keep donors aware of how their gifts will be used.
“The worst thing [charities] can do is say, ‘It’s a recession, and we have to stop asking for money,’ ” she said. “Most households do give — and a slim majority give year to year.”
Donors during tough economies tend to direct their giving toward the most urgent needs, such as food and shelter.
Charities that provide other services said they understand donors might have different priorities now, but they’re trying to maintain a relationship, so as not to be forgotten.
Hospice Buffalo, for example, distributed a new DVD about the hospice experience and invited donors to an open house at its newest facility, St. John Baptist Hospice Buffalo House.
“Hopefully, through those activities, it translates into charitable donations to the institution,” said Patrick T. Flynn, vice president of Hospice Buffalo.
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