Community Corner

Charitable Organizations Facing Crunch In Hard Times

United Way and others see increasing demand and declining donations

Unemployment in Connecticut started to climb in 2008 when it jumped from 5 percent to almost 7 percent. It hovered around 9 percent for all of last year, according to the state Department of Labor’s website.

Health and human service agencies are facing increasing needs from people who are unemployed or under-employed in Connecticut at the same time the state is tightening its purse strings. Donations to the agencies are also down because of the economy and jobs situation.

“Definitely, there has been an increase in need, the basic needs for sure, like energy and utility assistance and food,” said Jill Davoll, a spokesperson for United Way in Middlesex County. “(Local agencies) have seen a huge increase in phone calls from people who need help.”

The Thames Valley Council for Community Action was providing energy assistance for  roughly 6,000 families four years ago, according to Deborah Monahan, executive director of the nonprofit social service corporation, but demand has risen to 10,000 families.

The downward trend in financial donations began in 2008 as one of the repercussions of the economic downturn, according to Davoll. The United Way of Middlesex County, which includes Clinton, received about $190,000 less in 2009, according to annual reports and, Davoll said, there are fewer donations to report again this year.

Kathy Hart-Jones, a spokesperson for United Way for Greater New Haven County, which serves Madison among its member communities, said her region has seen a similar decline in financial donations.

“We’ve seen a dip in money (donations), all nonprofits are seeing that. We’ve gone away from putting a dollar amount on the fundraising,” she said. “We focus more on the resources invested in the community.”

Financial donations have amounted to the same or less than in previous years but more people are stepping up and helping in other ways, such as volunteering their time and skills in areas like education and financial counseling, according to Hart-Jones.

“It’s challenging times but we’re finding that people do care and giving in education is way up,” said Hart-Jones. “In terms of what our goals are in changing the community, that’s great.”

Davoll agreed. “Where they don’t have the dollars, I think more people are looking at volunteering in food drives and diaper drives to help,” she said.

United Way of Southeastern Connecticut found that including more volunteers in its campaign helped this year. The organization raised $100,644 more than last year and the increase was due to the extra volunteers dispatched to spread the word, according to spokesperson Laura Giannelli.

“We created the largest volunteer structure in our history,” she said. “We knew if we focused on participation, the dollars would follow.”

Gianelli said they recruited seven more people dedicated to raising awareness of the campaign and their efforts drew in more than 4,000 new donors, a 38 percent increase over last year’s participation level.

Marek Kukulka, executive director of in Norwich, said he has “beefed up” fundraising efforts in response to the increased demand for services.

“In the past four to five years we have experienced a decrease in funds,” he said. “We have increased our (fundraising) goal, otherwise, we would have to cut programs. We have become more and more sophisticated and we try to fundraise more.”

Catholic Charities in Norwich, which serves four counties, including New London and Middlesex, has found that individual donors dig deeper when called upon.

“Individual donors have responded generously and have helped bridge the gap,” said Kukulka, who has reduced some staff  to a per diem basis in order to sustain programs.

Connectucut’s foreclosure rate has improved and now ranks 39th in the country, according to RealtyTrac.com, an online foreclosure database, but there were 837 new foreclosures filed in the last month, according to the website.

“Unemployment continues to be very difficult for folks and if a medical issue comes along, then really there’s no cushion,” said Michael Petrides, director of programs for Catholic Charities in Norwich.

Petrides said the need for emergency services such as fuel, food and shelter has increased 10 to 15 percent this year but, he said, “we’re finding increased demand across the board.”

“We’ve been quite busy helping people either to keep their house or helping people get rid of their house to something smaller or to a rental,” said Kukulka, who said they responded to 1,100 requests for help through their foreclosure prevention and first-time buyer programs in 2010.

Alliance For Living, which provides non-medical assistance for people with AIDS/HIV in New London County, reported a $30,000 loss from the last fiscal year and had to reduce services, according to Sandra Brindamour, executive director. They eliminated one free, weekly dinner and they are not able to provide as much transportation to clients to the center. They also didn’t receive as much funding from the state Department of Social Services and lost subsidies for 11 housing units.

“Unfortunately contributions were down last year,” Brindamour said. “Our fundrasing event income was down, we had to cut back on some of our services and of course, our staff.”

Funding for United Community and Family Services, which offers health care for people in New London County who don’t have insurance, has remained level over the past couple years only because some programs received more money while others were cut.

The decrease in funds and donations can be seen on all levels. Efforts to sustain services has come at a cost to the people who make those services possible.  

UCFS has absorbed the costs internally by reducing contributions to employees’ 401ks, it suspended raises last year and has raised the cost of employee health insurance, according to Vice President of Finance Joanne Smart.

“We are a federally qualified health center, we have to cut in other areas in order to continue to provide services,” she said.

“We're really at the mercy of the donations we received. The amount we collected was slightly less than in previous years and we have definitely made some tough choices,” said Davoll, who said her office had to layoff one staff member and there were “small percentage cuts” in funding across the board.

Overall, the budgetary constraints have required some cuts, inconveniences, and concerns for charitable organizations, but said Monahan, “how do you tell someone who is un-employed and in need that they have to give up more?”


http://www1.ctdol.state.ct.us/lmi/unemprateCTUS.asp
http://www.realtytrac.com/content/press-releases/foreclosure-activity-increases-1-percent-in-january-6387
http://www1.ctdol.state.ct.us/lmi/LAUS/lauscty.asp
http://www.realtytrac.com/home/
http://www.ct.gov/malloy/cwp/view.asp?A=11&Q=473352
http://www.governor.ct.gov/malloy/cwp/view.asp?a=11&Q=473940
http://www.chfa.org/content/CHFA%20Document%20Library/2010%20LP%20and%20FD.pdf

UW partners in Clinton/Madison:
Madison: Youth and Family Srvcs.
Clinton Board of Ed., Middlesex Hospital— Opportunity Knocks and Perinatal Program

UW partners in NL County:
http://uwsect.org/media/DonorGivingGuideUWSECT.pdf


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