After the Holidays, Donations Drop But Demand Rises
BY LIZ EMMETT-MATTOX
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Whether motivated by holiday spirit or the lure of tax donations for charitable contributions, most non-profit and social service organizations see a huge surge in donations of both money and tangible goods such as canned food or clothing towards the end of the year.

But what happens to these organizations and their clientele after the first of the year?

After speaking with representatives of several local relief agencies, two trends emerged: contributions go down at the same time as demand for their services goes up.
Edwina Salazar, Executive Director of the OUR Center put it this way, “We are so grateful for everything people give during the holidays, and it does come to an abrupt halt.”
Bob Young, executive pastor of VineLife Church and director of their local outreach ministry explained, “By Dec. 26, people have giving fatigue.”

The challenge facing these organizations is that the needs of their clients don’t diminish after the first of the year. In fact, many of them actually see an increase in the demand for their services in January as families are stretched to the limit.

And as the recession lingers on, leaders of these organizations don’t expect things to get any easier, either for them or for their clients.

Executive Director of the OUR Center Edwina Salazar said, “In the 12 years I’ve worked at the OUR Center, I’ve never seen this level of need.”
Pastor Young said, “The demand is constant and rising.”

Jim Baldwin, executive director of Community Food Share said, “In a perfect world, people would support us throughout the year. Hunger and food needs are all year long. Resources get stretched at the holidays and with the low-income population we serve, by the time they pay for rent, utilities and bus fare so they can get to work, the money is all gone by the end of the month. ”

Donna Lovato, executive director of the Inn Between, which provides transitional housing and support services for homeless families and individuals, explained that many of their residents work for temporary agencies and while they may have had work during the busy holiday season, jobs are much harder to come by after the first of the year.

Unlike salaried employees whose paychecks are unaffected by a few sick days, flu season can be a serious problem for workers who are paid hourly. “If they get sick, or their kids get sick, they can’t work. And if they don’t work, they don’t get paid,” Lovato said.

The OUR Center offers a comprehensive range of services to help families and individuals be self-sufficient, and strives to keep people in their homes, but Salazar said that they always see a spike in evictions in January.
“Landlords are being kind to their tenants because they don’t want to evict them during the holidays, but we know January always brings a big increase in evictions,” Salazar said.

As part of their outreach ministries, Vinelife Church collects food and clothing for their Wellspring Storehouse. It also has a fund that is available for direct assistance.

In contrast to the OUR Center or Sister Carmen, which provide comprehensive assistance and case management for individuals and families, Young said that their goal is to address acute needs, such as helping out with a car repair, or preventing someone from being evicted or having their utilities turned off.
Young said, “This is intended as crisis intervention, not a long-term solution. And the fundamental question we ask is this: If you’re in this situation now, what is it that is going to change so that you don’t find yourself in this same situation again next month.”

And like the population they serve, Young said, “We run out of money [for direct assistance] every month.”
The sudden drop in donations to charitable organization after the holidays is not a new phenomenon. For Lovato of the Inn Between, “January and February are our slimmest months. We practice a bare bones budget for the first quarter.”
Suzanne Crawford, the CEO of Sister Carmen Community Center summed up the challenges facing her organization this way, “The trick is to figure out how to spread out what we get [during the holiday giving season] throughout the year.”
So just in case you were feeling a little lingering holiday spirit, or wanted to help one of your favorite non-profit organizations, now would be a great time to make a donation.

For the organizations mentioned in this article, here are some of their most pressing needs:

All of these organizations welcome financial contributions as well as donations of food - canned goods (especially soups and chili) and also fresh produce, dairy products and meat.
Residents of the Inn Between could use donations of diapers, personal hygiene products (toothpaste, soap, deodorant, etc.), household cleaning products (dish soap, laundry soap, etc.).

Vinelife also accepts donations of clothing throughout the year.

Grocery gift cards from Safeway and King Soopers in $10 or $15 amounts can be donated to Sister Carmen. Crawford said that the gift cards are given to clients for gas so that they can get to work, to medical appointments, job interviews and the like.

Contact the organizations before delivering food or other tangible goods.

For more information, contact Community Food Share at www.communityfoodshare.org; the Inn Between at www.theinnbetween.org; the OUR Center at www.ourcenter.org; the Sister Carmen Community Center at www.sistercarmen.org, or Vinelife Church at www.vinelife.com/ministries/local-outreach.