When you sit down to consider your charitable contributions this year, you may want to bring your heart along with your budget. Many of us, facing pay cuts, job worries and uncertainty about what's ahead, may not feel able to give as much this year as we have in the past, forcing us to make difficult decisions beyond dollars and cents. A recent American Red Cross poll found that 20% of givers planned to reduce their contributions this year, though 62% were hoping to give about the same amount.
Yet with unemployment at the highest level in a generation, basic needs are greater than they have been in recent memory. A nationwide survey of food banks in September found an average increase in demand of 30%, and even in places where more food was available, the gains weren't enough to offset the surging need.
Just over half of all charities have seen donations fall this year, according to an informal poll by the Association of Fundraising Professionals, and another 27% are flat with a year ago. Now, at the beginning of the crucial fund-raising season between Thanksgiving and New Year's Day, when many charities raise more than half of their annual donations, many are working harder to reconnect with former donors and refining their messages to grab our attention.
With fewer disasters bringing in donations this year, the American Red Cross has launched an advertising campaign, bought Google search and banner ads and dug deeper into its mailing lists in hopes of renewing relationships with lapsed donors, says Jeff Towers, chief development officer. It also created a giving "catalog" of donations, such as $54 for three warm blankets or $50 for a "comfort kit" for a wounded veteran, in hopes of persuading some folks to give contributions this year instead of traditional purchases.
The American Cancer Society, where donations for the year ended Aug. 31 were down 11%, also is trying to reach more old donors and renewing its message that cancer "doesn't take a rest." Meanwhile, foundation endowments are still reeling from last year's stock-market debacle, and the groups have less to distribute. The Council on Foundations said earlier this year that 62% of foundations planned to reduce their grants in 2009.
All this adds up to tough choices for givers, who need to weigh not just how much to give, but also whether to focus on those most in need instead of old favorites like animal societies, universities or the arts.
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