Charities receive fewer holiday donations
Salvation Army, others report less giving despite greater need
Salvation Army worker Edward Atkins squinted through the evening drizzle at the man in a long wool coat who was stuffing change into the old-fashioned red kettle in front of a storefront on Boylston Street.
"It's not too much, but . . ." the man said with an apologetic note in his voice, before hurrying off into the night. A minute later, another man holding a cellphone to his ear dropped a few coins into the kettle.
Even in this shopping district, where Christmas lights of upscale stores reflect in the granite pavement slick with melting snow, fewer people are donating money than last year, and those who are giving contribute smaller amounts than usual, Atkins - who has been ringing the bell for Salvation Army's Red Kettle Campaign in Boston for five years - said last week.
Across the country, donations to the Salvation Army's ubiquitous Christmastime bell-ringers are down. In Massachusetts, the organization, which served more than 1 million people in the state in 2007, has collected 8 percent fewer do nations than last year through the Red Kettle Campaign, said Thomas Langdon, a Salvation Army official in Boston. In Portland, Maine, and New York City, Red Kettle donations are 30 percent lower than last year; in Orlando, Fla., they declined 40 percent, the organization reported.
Several other charitable organizations are also reporting declines in donations this year. Catholic Charities of Boston, which serves nearly 3,000 families across Eastern Massachusetts, suffered a slight decline in donations. Toys for Tots, a foundation run by the US Marines that provides new toys to needy children, had a shortfall until Boston-based Olivia's Organics donated $78,000 to pay for 15,000 toys this week, said Staff Sergeant Patrick Foreman, a Massachusetts spokesman for the foundation.
Not all charities suffered. The United Way of Massachusetts Bay and Merrimack Valley, which collects a large segment of its donations in workplace fund drives, said it has collected about the same as last year.
At the same time, Salvation Army and other charities reported that more people are turning to them for help this year.
"What was 500 families last year is now 900 families" asking for help, said Jake Kennedy, who runs Christmas in the City, a charitable organization that helps homeless children in Boston.
"We're seeing more and more people who need help with Christmas," said Virginia Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the Catholic Charities of Boston, which serves nearly 3,000 families across eastern Massachusetts. "Prices are going up, the obvious stuff. It's becoming increasingly difficult for people to pay their bills, pay rent, and also get presents for Christmas."
Money collected through the Red Kettle Campaign, which starts in late November and ends Christmas Eve, constitutes a "significant share" of Salvation Army's operating budget in Massachusetts, where the organization is one of the largest charities, Langdon said. Salvation Army also gets donations via mail and the Internet; those donations were also slightly lower this year in Massachusetts than last year, he said.
The dwindling contributions probably stem from "the economic instability of many individuals," and the rising prices of food and basic commodities such as heating oil, said Melissa Temme, spokeswoman for Salvation Army's national headquarters in Alexandria, Va.
Even the series of snowstorms that hit New England this year have slowed down the collections because fewer people were near the stores where Salvation Army workers and volunteers collected donations, said Patricia James, spokeswoman for the group in Maine, Vermont, and New Hampshire.
Wrapped in a parka and a balaclava with a scarf and a hat on top, Atkins shifted his weight from one foot to another to the rhythm of his bell and watched pedestrians stream along Boylston Street past his tripod, adorned with a large poster bearing a Salvation Army shield and the words: "You can help us do the most good."
At 5:20 p.m., a man in a leather jacket said, "Merry Christmas," but dropped nothing in the kettle. At 5:24, a young man with a backpack folded a dollar bill and stuffed it into the slit. At 5:29, a woman carrying a pile of red paper shopping bags from Macy's put another dollar in the pot.
For the next seven minutes, an average of 25 people walked past Atkins, but no one stopped.
But there is still time to donate before Christmas, Atkins mused, muttering chopped sentences into the icy rain. "Do some last-minute shopping. Give some more money," he said. "To help the children a little bit." 