January 6, 2011 | 12:57 PM | By

The Salvation Army Collected Less, This Year

FILED UNDER: Around the City, Non-profits, Philanthropy

DCentric

A Salvation Army Red Kettle at "Social Safeway", in Georgetown.

WaPo has an update on Giant’s move to limit the Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign outside of its grocery stores, via this article: “Limited collection time at Giant fueled drop in donations, Salvation Army says“. The charity collected 60% less money than it did last year:

Giant’s policy change irked some advocates for the needy.

“It’s hard times like these when we need our corporate partners to step up and do more rather than less,” said Terry Lynch, executive director of the Downtown Cluster of Congregations. “A lot less people are going to get a lot less help when they most need it. And that’s tragic.”…

Terri Lee Freeman, president of the Community Foundation, which makes grants to local groups, said nonprofits have been further hurt because local governments facing declining tax revenue are less able to hire the organizations as contractors.

“Contributions are down,” Freeman said. “We saw a lot of year-end appeals that in the past we had not seen, and it’s just a very difficult environment right now for giving.”

The Salvation Army’s National Capital Area Command serves the Washington region, helping 83,000 people in 2009, the group reported…The campaign also raises money to help desperate families pay their rent and utility bills, and buy clothing and groceries. In the past year, Forsythe said, the Salvation Army provided rental subsidies that prevented 1,172 evictions.

About the author

DCentric was created to examine the ways race and class interact in Washington, D.C., a city with a vibrant mix of cultures and neighborhoods. Your guides to the changing district are reporters Anna John and Elahe Izadi. View all posts by Anna →

  • guest

    along with Giant, another contributing factor could be continuing fallout from the bad PR for their anti-homosexuality stance.