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Faced with donor burn-out, local charities shift fundraising strategies

Outside the grocery store a man is asking for change. Bundled against the cold he smiles at shoppers who avoid his eyes as they head in through the automatic doors. A homeless person? No. A Salvation Army volunteer and although he doesn’t actually ask for change, the three-quarters empty clear plastic kettle is a clear enough request. And the shoppers hurrying by are the answer.

"People are just saying ‘I don’t have the money, don’t have the money I used to have," says Doti Niedermayer, executive director of Whistler Arts Council.

Just days before Christmas and the Salvation Army has raised only one-quarter of its $10,000 goal from nine kettles in the Whistler and Squamish area. John Murray, spokesperson for the charity’s B.C. division said the five kettles in Whistler and four in Squamish have raised $2,400 by the third week of the one-month campaign. "We are cautiously optimistic that we’ll meet our goal again this year."

Charities like the Salvation Army are having a tough time across Canada this month and the Arts Council director says people are just tired of giving. "I think it’s just burnout across the board," Niedermayer said. "Cost of living has increased, and salaries, even with two-parent working families, can’t keep up."

The head of the United Way in Vancouver agrees. "In the Lower Mainland with housing costs coupled with lower discretionary funds, many don’t have the income to donate in the way they once did," said Michael McKnight, local CEO of the United Way.

McKnight points out that there is fierce competition for donors. "Twenty years ago, we didn’t see fundraising from hospital boards, universities and public school boards – now we do."

About one in four Canadians donated to registered charities last year, Statistics Canada said in a recent report, and B.C. donates $290 per tax filer, the third highest median average, $60 more than the national average. Whistler taxfilers had an average median donation of $150. B.C. donated the second largest amount of funds, over $973 million, an increase of 12.5 per cent from 2003.

Mei McCurdy is executive director of the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation. With money raised from two annual events and from 50 donated Whistler-Blackcomb "founders" passes, the foundation annually distributes more than half a million dollars through the Sea to Sky corridor, for everything from fire and rescue equipment to bedding and clothing for the Zero Ceiling Society (see Zero Ceiling: A journey to the top, in this issue). Funding applications to the foundation jumped by more than 50 per cent in 2005, from 65 to 100. And McCurdy says that although corporate sponsors and individuals are still donating, amounts to the foundation have been reduced. "We are stretching our community very thin," she said, and has changed her fundraising strategy accordingly.

"I approach different people in the fall than in the winter for each event, because they’ve given so much I don’t want to say in the fall ‘hey can you give more in a few months?’"

Whistler Arts Council is taking the same route.

"We’ve made the decision to be more careful about asking local businesses to donate because we can see how tapped out they are," says Niedermayer. "There has to be a sensitivity when someone says ‘you’re the 20 th person this week that’s asked me.’"

The arts council head says the group is shifting their focus to corporations that can utilize the tax breaks while employing good marketing strategies by contributing to community. "And the philanthropists that have the money and it’s nothing for them to sign the cheque," she said.

United Way has traditionally targeted individuals through at-work campaigns, but it too is shifting fundraising strategies to focussing on cultivating philanthropists. "We’re trying to appeal to donors who can contribute larger amounts of money," CEO McKnight says. He says the challenge is also to encourage younger donors "who, when they can, give small amounts, but can give larger amounts later in life," he said from his Vancouver office.

As head of the United Way, McKnight says he tries to set an example. "I ask myself personally what I need to do. We need to think less about what we can buy but how what we spend can help make a better community."

There’s no heat in the vacant Function Junction storefront that Whistler Community Services is using to assemble Christmas hampers for 20 Whistler-area families. (Although the average median family income in Whistler is close to $80,000 the United Way says there are 55 low-income families living in the community.) Three volunteers are wrapping gifts, another two have walked through the door as Eleanor Simmers takes time from sorting canned goods to greet and direct the newcomers. The hamper program is just one of 17 programs executive assistant Simmers helps Whistler Community Services administer.

Simmers is picky about the kinds of items that go into the hampers, making sure that special perks like maple syrup and chocolates get added to staples like tuna, peanut butter and the ubiquitous boxed macaroni and cheese. "Who wants a hamper full of KD?" she says. Individuals and businesses have sponsored the hampers, contributing either cash or goods. Simmers hasn’t had any trouble in finding sponsors this year, in fact, many are returning sponsors.

The Arts Council’s Niedermayer says Whistler is an incredibly generous town. "When we panicked at the children’s art festival and went and asked ‘we need something for the kids,’ people were like ‘yup, here you go."

McCurdy echoes that observation. "It always surprises me how much people are willing to give. Not just businesses, but the volunteers who come back year after year and young kids that come for a season that phone up and say ‘hey we’d like to donate our time’ – they just give and give."



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