Agencies dealing with dwindling donations
In times of tragedy, Americans show they can pull together. The world witnessed this in the aftermath of Sept. 11, 2001, when the hearts of many Americans were touched and they felt the need to donate their hard-earned dollars to aid the victims. But, oftentimes when Americans dish out dollars nationally, officials from local charities said they are forgotten and suffer from a funding shortage.
They claim that’s especially the case this year as several local agencies are downsizing or in jeopardy of closing their doors because of a decrease in donations attributed to people giving to the victims of tragedies ranging from Sept. 11 to Hurricane Katrina, which struck Gulf Coast earlier this year.
In combination with the drop in fund-raising, many agencies have also had to deal with cuts in government funding.
Here’s a survey of local agencies and how they’re dealing with the funding problem.
The Crime Victims Center
Executive Director Jacquie Fritts said since the small agency has faced a $50,000 reduction in federal and state money, she had to find places to decrease spending. “Anybody who leaves here, I’m not rehiring,” she said, noting she’s not replacing a prevention educator who is going back to school, and she had cut back the hours a counselor works. “I’m not able to hire anybody. We’re going to have to lay off, even though I don’t want to, but that now is a reality.”
She said the 11 percent cut in her budget this year is on top of a 7 percent cut applied last year and 6 percent dished out the year before.
“Our president and senators just don’t get it,” Fritts said. “We’re not rich. I’m dancing with my budget. This year, (the cuts) are more severe.’
Another slash in the agency’s revenue occurred when Children and Youth Services in Fayette County was forced to cut its counseling contracts with the center.
Unfortunately, while funds are decreasing, the number of people in need of the agency’s services has increased, according to Fritts. She attributes this rise in the demand for services to an increased willingness from the people to tell their stories and seek help for violent crimes such as rape.
Fritts said the center encounters a lot of people who need counseling after falling victim to crimes, but they have to be placed on a waiting list due to the cutbacks.
While her agency is suffering from a lack of funds, Fritts said she understands what’s going on.
“With everybody struggling and gas prices going up, people are not going to be able to give $1,000 to the victims of Katrina and to other local charities,” Fritts said, noting her own heart as well goes out to the hurricane victims, especially the elderly.
“People just don’t have money to give to everything. …When you see that kind of devastation on television, people want to help and I would never criticize those people for that,” she added. “I can’t blame the community for saying they want to help that person, but I also hope they remember us because we do a lot in our community.”
Children & Youth Services (CYS)
Administrator Dave Madison said his state funding allocation for 2005-06 was reduced by $791,000, causing the agency to eliminate a family preservation program and reduce costs for virtually all its services.
Madison said the agency is banking on a 100 percent county match and the chance of being able to provide child welfare services through the medical assistance of those they serve, if they can obtain it.
While the government decided to make a “drastic cutback” in the agency’s funding, Madison said he is seeing a trend of a significant increase in the number of families needing services, mainly because of drug addictions.
“In the past 51/2 weeks, we placed five infants because they tested positive for drugs,” Madison said. “A child’s urine came back positive for crack, which seems to be the predominant one.”
In Fayette County in 2001, 20 percent of total cases involved drug or alcohol issues and children in placement jumped last year by 75 percent because of same issues, primarily drug issues, Madison said.
“Services are needed and funding is going down. We were one of a few counties that got nailed,” he added.
Madison reduced expenditures by $760,000, a more than 10 percent reduction.
He noted the importance of CYS staff working face-to-face with the children and parents, but, ironically, he said, every contract of that sort, such as counseling, had to be cut or significantly reduced.
“It all comes down to that loss of 11 percent in federal money,” he added. “The county can’t afford to put more funding toward our program, but they’re going to have to if we are to continue to operate even with the cuts that I’ve made.”
Madison said the state and federal government make it difficult to provide quality service with more regulations and unfunded mandates.
“But we will do what we have to do to keep these kids safe,” he added.
Domestic Violence Services of Fayette County
A decline in funding forced the agency to move from its downtown Uniontown location to a local shelter for domestic violence victims, said Executive Director Gloria Mickens-Flippen.
She said the agency is “only downsizing” and the move from the agency’s Uniontown office into an undisclosed shelter location was one way to offset agency expenses.
“It was a necessary cutback in order to continue to provide quality services,” Mickens-Flippen said. “We worked out of a garage for 15 years. This (office) was a just a little luxury.’
She said the agency also trimmed expenses by eliminating three staff positions and recruiting volunteers to perform the extra workload.
“We knew that we needed cost-saving moves. We’ve been doing it for years,” Mickens-Flippen added. “I kind of feel like I’m taking a step back, but in order to provide the same quality services, these cutbacks were necessary.”
Mickens-Flippen said the cutbacks are a matter of decreased community support dollars over the years.
She first implemented cost-saving moves after the Sept. 11 tragedy, at a time when she noticed people’s contributions ebbing and flowing and a lot of donations from civic groups decreasing, while expenses, including rental and utility costs, were going up.
But, the situation is nothing new for Mickens-Flippen and her agency.
“We, like all agencies in Fayette County, are oftentimes in a competitive mode,” she said. “We all need money and we are trying to do what we can do to come up with it from fund-raisers.
“The bottom line,” she added, “is the same services will be provided to those who benefit from the agency. One of the most crucial things we need to let folks know is whatever dollars they give (to this agency), stay in Fayette County. People don’t want to see their dollars go elsewhere. The donations stay here and help the victims of domestic violence.’
Fayette County Community Action Agency Food Bank
Project Manager Jamie Brink said the food bank has recently mailed out its annual fall appeal letters seeking donations from the community, and, so far, overall donations are down by 10 percent.
People contributing to the hurricane relief effort instead of the local food bank along with prices rising in a multitude of living expenses have led to the decline in monetary donations, Brink said.
“People’s taxes and health insurances are going up. They have pulled the belt so tight. But, we have to think positive,” she said.
Earlier this year, the food bank also had to eliminate one staff position because of grants not being approved.
The food bank’s Fall Food Share held for three weekends in November went well, noted Brink, with the food bank succeeding in obtaining monetary donations and canned goods donations, but not enough to offset the losses experienced thus far.
“We could always use more canned donations, while monetary donations are welcomed because we have more buying power with those,” she said.
United Way of South Fayette Inc.
Marlene Baker, executive director, said it has been “a tough year” for the agency that acts as an umbrella to provide a portion of funding for 16 Fayette County non-profit agencies.
Baker said it is still too early to know by how much donations have decreased since money has gone to the hurricane relief effort, but the decrease is significant.
“As soon as Hurricane Katrina hit, we knew (because) we know what happened after the tsunami last year,” Baker said. “We didn’t meet our goal last year. We’re definitely trying to meet our goal this year.”
But, as with other non-profit leaders, Baker wants to get across the inherent message found in the outcome of the tragedy: that local residents cannot forget agencies near their homes that are in dire need of their support.
“Our hearts go out to the victims of the national catastrophes (of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita), but we hope local people will dig into their pocketbooks a little deeper, remembering that we have people in the community that are in dire straits and need their support,” Baker said.
“The money people are putting toward the hurricanes hurt a lot of us,” she continued. “There are United Way-funded agencies working in the south. There is a United Way in Louisiana and Alabama. People don’t want to forget our local United Way agency here.”
When donation dollars are given to the United Way, the money is spread across the 16 Fayette County agencies it supports “to keep them running,” said Baker.
Among the 16 local agencies United Way supports, several have made cutbacks this year in light of declining donations, said Baker.
“Several have found themselves in that position, including us,” Baker said. “We have cut back on our hours and are trying to keep up with it. (The cutbacks) do make a difference.”
American Red Cross, Southwestern Pennsylvania chapter
Red Cross spokesperson Jill Berardi said while it is too early to tell whether the agency is suffering from declining donations primarily due to the hurricane relief effort, the Red Cross realizes it is something that could happen.
“We could suffer because people feel like they gave once and that is their gift,” Berardi said. “We will take a look at it after some time passes to figure out if and how it has affected us.”
But, last year brought a pleasant surprise for the Red Cross as the agency discovered that people were giving locally even as they donated their dollars to the victims of four hurricanes and the Pittsburgh flooding. The same held true for the time after the Sept. 11 tragedy, said Berardi.
Nevertheless, Berardi still wants local residents to keep the local efforts of the Red Cross in mind because while tragedy has plagued the south, the work locally still continues, she said.
“We have to get back to what we are doing in the community,” she said. Four hundred Red Cross volunteers, many from Fayette County, have been generated from the hurricane relief effort and have been trained to assist the victims.
Many of those volunteers, Berardi said, have responded to local disasters. Those same volunteers set up a warming center at the Fayette County Fairgrounds after the end-of-October snowstorm caused many people to be without power or heat.
“Please think of the local chapter, although we are helping (with the relief effort),” Berardi said.
She added that around $3.2 million has been forwarded from the southwestern Pennsylvania four-county area the Red Cross serves to the hurricane relief effort. Those millions are not including the donations people sent nationally rather than through the regional or local branch.
“We aren’t retaining any of that (money). We are simply passing on,” said Berardi. “While it’s labor-intensive for us, we keep none of it.”
The Fayette County Drug and Alcohol Commission
The agency took a 28 percent cut in funding for its tobacco cessation program that helps people to quit smoking and a 15 percent decrease in its drug-free schools program funded by money from the county’s school districts.
Executive Director Deanna Sherbondy said the commission will be able to provide services, but will make cuts by repositioning employees, cutting hours and doing without certain equipment and supplies.
Jana Kyle of the Tobacco Control Program said her program took a cut in the nicotine replacement therapy, which is provided for people who do not have insurance to pay for such a service.
Kyle said the cuts will result in less tobacco prevention education in the schools and noted that the programs are important, even for younger children.
Carl Casurole, chief financial officer for the commission, said the commission’s budget took a hit when the major funding received from the state and federal government was slashed.
“It starts at the federal level with these type of funds,” he said.
Casurole is working on the commission’s revised budget. He noted that subcontractor services, which include all deliverables, still have to be met, despite the cuts.
“It’s going to hurt us and some subcontractors,” he said.
While no layoffs will result from the cuts, the commission will have to reduce services and readjust its situation internally. The commission is not filling positions vacated by employees for whatever reason, Casurole said.
The commission found itself in the same situation in 2003, when three employee positions were eliminated because of cuts in funding. Casurole said the state ended up putting back into their budget that same funding, but it was too late for those three people who had already lost their jobs and moved on to find employment elsewhere.
The commission provides treatment for an estimated 800 people with substance abuse problems as well as hosting driving under the influence of alcohol and underage drinking treatment classes. Many of those who receive treatment from the commission are court-ordered to do so.
Fayette Friends of Animals
For Fayette Friends of Animals (FFOA) in Menallen Township, dwindling donation dollars nearly meant the closure of the animal shelter that prides itself as being the only no-kill shelter in Fayette County.
When the shelter’s accountant showed the numbers that were in the red in September to FFOA President Flo Fronczek, she thought she might have to close the doors to the new building that has recently undergone improvements.
“Our board felt anxious about it. Donations were coming in, but in small amounts. We knew we had to come up with something,” she said.
The community pulled through for the animal shelter, freeing it from the financial crisis that loomed ahead.
Shelter staff sent out 1,000 newsletters, urging the community’s support. Through the one-page announcements, which was a cutback itself from the multi-page letter usually produced, the shelter received $7,500 in community funding.
Luckily, FFOA was able to recover from dwindling donations and collect its losses from a few hundred dedicated donors.
But for Fronczek, it was a hard lesson in the reality of a world where many people are paying an increased price for what many Americans deem necessities, such as a home mortgage, heating fuel and gasoline for vehicles.
Just as many Americans need their paychecks to survive and pay these bills, non-profits, such as FFOA, require their paycheck in the form of monetary donations to survive.
“Like everybody else, we’re living paycheck to paycheck. Plus, when you (expand), you have more animals and more employees to take care of, so you need more revenue,” said Fronczek.
In 2004, the shelter switched locations from a rented building in North Union Township to a former meat packing plant located on a hill along Searights-Herbert Road in Menallen Township, and held their official grand opening in September after shelter renovations were nearly complete.
Every animal adopted is spayed or neutered, dewormed, given all its shots and is microchipped in case it gets lost. The cost of such services hardly covers the $85 adoption donation, Fronczek said.
“We need at least $5,000 per month to survive,” said Fronczek. “Adoptions pay for the next dog to get fixed, so we’re really not profiting.
“I think everyone needs to keep it in mind that local non-profits need money,” she added. “People have to realize the thousands of animals we save by controlling the pet population (through spaying and neutering). Not one animal leaves this shelter without being fixed. The only way we’re going to control it is to get them fixed.”