Charitable Giving: Steady increase of donations in Fayette, Greene
Evan Sanders
Jeff Marts, a staff member at the St. Vincent de Paul Store in Uniontown, works on assembling a child’s crib before it is put out for sale.
Evan Sanders
Volunteers look through donated jewelry before processing them to be sold on the sales floor at St. Vincent de Paul Store in Uniontown.
Evan Sanders
Carol McKean, who has been volunteering at the St. Vincent de Paul Store in Uniontown for a handful of years, looks over a boot before the pair are put out on the sales floor.
Evan Sanders
Jerry Deeds of Smock who has been volunteering at the St. Vincent de Paul Store in Uniontown for over six years, steams the wrinkles out of shirts before they are put out for sale.
The Society of St. Vincent de Paul in Uniontown relies solely on donations to run its programs to help people in need.
Donations of thousands of dollars are rare and most are much smaller, said Roy Sarver, executive director.
Every donation is appreciated and some truly reflect the nature of giving.
“Last year, a volunteer got a letter with one dollar in it. It said the person was homeless and we helped, but this is all that person could afford,” Sarver said. “To me that dollar means a lot.”
He said donations of money, food and clothing and household items come from people with varying incomes. Grocery stores donate perishable foods that are approaching their expiration dates and non-perishable food comes from drives held by churches and schools.
Donated clothes, household items and furniture are sold at the St. Vincent’s Thrift Store and furniture showroom on North Mount Vernon Avenue.
Proceeds go to St. Vincent’s programs that assist the homeless, hungry and people having difficulty paying electric and natural gas bills. Clothes, which are sold for a dollar or two, are given to people who can’t afford them, Saver said.
Donations have increased slightly since the recession of 2008 ended, he said.
“It’s pretty steady. Each year it goes up a little, but it’s not dramatic,” Sarver said, “Our donations are local. They come from the community. Our donors see that we help the local community and that’s why they donate to us. It’s that connection to the community itself.”
Money is usually donated in small sums.
“Large for us is a couple hundred dollars. We don’t get donations in the thousands, maybe occasionally. (Small donations) add up,” Sarver said. “Thanksgiving and Christmas it increases, and after that it drops off.”
A lot of the donations received by the Community Foundation of Fayette County are made toward the end of the year because they are tax deductible and because of the holidays.
“A lot of organizations do year-end appeals and people want last minute tax deductions,” said Clara Pascoe, foundation executive director. “And people feel charitable around the holidays. Charity is a wonderful thing. We see it year around, but definitely toward the end of the year and around events.”
The foundation accepts donations for more than 150 funds that benefit non-profit organizations, charities, arts, scholarships, schools, libraries and animal shelters. The foundation also provides grants to non-profit organizations.
Charitable giving has rebounded from a decline following the 2008 recession, Pascoe said.
“At that time giving went down and the market went down. People had less money to give away. The market has corrected and giving came back,” she said.
The organizations that receive donations through the foundation vary, but the donations come from people who feel fortunate.
“If you have been blessed, you want to help others. That’s my experience with a lot of people,” Pascoe said.
Terry Burden of Uniontown participated in the foundation’s Fayette Philanthropy Project this year to raise money for the East End United Community Center in Uniontown.
She organized gospel concerts and monthly hoagie sales to raise money for the center’s programs that help children from Fayette County. The center runs a day care center, an after school tutoring program that include meals, a summer program, field trips and other activities.
“I was so blessed I had to give back,” Burden said.
After graduating from the University of Pittsburgh in 1987, Burden worked for Fayette County Head Start for eight years and then had a 28-year career as a claims representative with State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.
Burden volunteers at the center almost every day and served on the executive board as treasurer. The board elected her to serve as chairwoman next year.
She does because she care about children.
“The kids are the foundation and our future. We have to help them. That’s where you have to start,” Burden said.
Community Action Southwest, which provides early childhood, family economy, home buying, senior citizen and other programs to Greene and Washington county residents, receives most of its contributions from middle- and upper-income donors, said CEO Darlene Bigler.
“I think that people give because they want to share their good fortune and because they recognize that other people are not as fortunate and need help and want to share,” Bigler said.
In addition to donating money, people want to interact with families that need help.
“People want to reach out and connect with families,” Bigler said.
The organization has a group of energetic volunteers that collected and distributed Christmas gifts to 72 families with 182 children and delivered some holiday meals, she said.
“We do see more donations this time of year,” Bigler said.
Donations from individuals have fairly steady even during the recession, she said. Corporate donations declined during the recession, but have grown steadily since then, she added.
People in Fayette and Greene counties give about the same shares of their incomes to charities, according to a 2012 study by the Chronicle of Philanthropy.
Fayette County’s giving ratio, the percentage of a person’s adjusted gross income (AGI) given to charity, is 2.37 percent and Greene County’s ratio is 2.40 percent, according to the report.
The AGI in Fayette was $994.1 million and contributions totaled $23.5 million. The median AGI was $79,078 and the median contribution was $2,833. The report listed the county population as 136,914.
In Greene County, the AGI was $361.9 million and contributions totaled $8.7 million.
The median AGI was $94,308 and the median contribution was $3,550. The county population was listed as 38,614.