Generous donors give Fund for Needy its greatest success

Just before Christmas every year at Normandy Park's Marvista Elementary, fourth-grade students collect books, lotions, toys and odds-and-ends they find around the house to stock a yard-sale-like "holiday store," where students and staff members can buy gifts for loved ones.

The proceeds — nearly $1,200 this year — mostly fund an annual field trip, but a portion is reserved for a recipient of the students' choice. This year, they voted to send a $100 check to The Seattle Times Fund For The Needy.

Despite a persistent economic recession, the Fund For The Needy raised more than $800,000 this year — the most successful campaign in its 31-year history.

That success reflects a broader philanthropic trend: While giving by corporations and foundations to nonprofit organizations has dipped here and elsewhere across the country, individual donors are doing their best to make up the gap, especially when it comes to helping meet basic needs.

For instance, with corporate gifts hard to come by, United Way of King County found relief in workplace giving, where campaigns at small and midsize companies grew by as much as 20 to 50 percent in the past year.

"The need is resonating for people more than it ever has,... " said the organization's Jared Erlandson. "So many people, myself included, know other people who have lost their jobs. People are worried for themselves and their friends."

United Way also saw stock gifts from major donors more than double in 2009, with the amount approaching pre-recession levels.

Daniel Borochoff, president of the Chicago-based American Institute of Philanthropy, said that while national nonprofits generally saw donations fall by about 10 percent overall last year, social-service agencies that provide food and shelter are getting the most attention from individual donors.

"People are shifting their giving to basic needs because of the recession," Borochoff said.

Not only did more people give to the Fund For The Needy this year, they gave a little bit more on average. And every dollar that donors give to the fund — as of Friday, this year's total was $801,249.63 — goes directly to its 13 beneficiary agencies, which in turn deliver meals to homebound seniors, help homeless families find housing and provide sustenance for neglected children, among other essential services.

That arrangement is one reason retired professor Lin Zurfluh, of Seattle, gave to the fund this year. "The need is greater these last several years than it's ever been, because of the economy," she said.

And one donor left more than $30,000 to the fund in his will.

School's culture

The Highline School District's Marvista Elementary has nurtured a culture of philanthropy, raising money for Haiti and other causes through an annual penny campaign.

Students of teacher Keith Matthews even pursue charitable interests outside of school: Blake Thompson gives half his recycling proceeds to a temporary-housing agency, while Kacie McLaughlin, who recently celebrated her 9th birthday, asked party guests to bring cans of dog or cat food to contribute to a local animal shelter.

"I know some people don't have as much as we do," said Blake, 10. "I care how other people feel, not just how I feel."

Matthews' class has given to a different cause each of the past five years.

This year, as always, students generated a list of more than a dozen possible recipients, each championed by a particular class member, before the list was whittled to four and a final vote was taken.

It was Zach Tallar, a 10-year-old with tousled blond hair, who advocated for the Fund For The Needy."I came in and said, 'I read about it in the paper,' " he said. "It's nice you can give to people when you know it's going to help them."

Individuals step up

This wouldn't seem like the time for a rise in giving by individuals, with unemployment still high, companies cutting back and foreclosures continuing.

But "while it is true that there are fewer people employed to give, we're definitely seeing that people who are employed are giving more," said Erlandson, of United Way.

Individual gifts also rose more than other types of donations at Senior Services, another Fund For The Needy beneficiary, with gifts largely going to the agency's Meals on Wheels program "to make sure our most frail and in-need elders were covered," said Valerie Costa, Senior Services' chief development officer.

Likewise, even as the Salvation Army — also a Fund For The Needy recipient — saw its major gifts diminish while food-bank lines doubled, money raised through the agency's kettle-giving campaign jumped 21 percent last year.

On the flip side, other types of nonprofit organizations, such as those supporting arts and culture, generally have not seen that kind of rise in personal giving.

Many rely on endowment funds, which base their giving on market earnings.

Given the economy, "a lot of corporations had less money to deal with," said Dwight Gee, executive vice president for Seattle-based ArtsFund, which solicits corporate donations for such organizations.

As a result, "we've seen a lot of cultural groups doing furloughs, doing layoffs and actually cutting into the services they provide," Gee said.

Anticipating the economy's effects, Woodland Park Zoo last year reduced its operating-support goals by about a fifth and all but abandoned capital fundraising.

"This turned out to be good timing," said spokeswoman Gigi Allianic, noting that foundations shifted their giving to the zoo's education programs rather than capital projects.

A survey commissioned last year by a group of sponsors including the Seattle Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs and 4Culture found that corporate giving fell as much as 50 percent among local cultural organizations, with foundation and individual giving down about 25 percent.

Last year, One Reel, which produces the upscale dinner theater Teatro ZinZanni, cut staff, salaries and office space to save money.

The Seattle Symphony has mandated furloughs and frozen pensions to cope with its own recession woes.

The success of this year's Fund For The Needy campaign, said ArtsFund's Gee, likely was spurred by the fact that the money "is going directly at what a lot of people are most concerned about."

Alan Fisco, The Times' vice president of circulation and corporate marketing, was heartened by the public outpouring. "It's a reflection of the trust (readers) have in us and our role in the community."

In addition to its focus on social-service needs, the fund was aided by other factors, including the availability of more information about the campaign online and the increased readership — and new donors — resulting from last year's closing of the printed Seattle Post-Intelligencer, which had sponsored a similar holiday-season campaign.

But the total number of donors was only several hundred ahead of last year, meaning one of the biggest drivers in the fund's success was the increase in the size of average donations.

Said Times Publisher Frank Blethen, whose family launched the Fund For The Needy in 1979, "it underscores the generosity of this community. When they're given a way to do it which they trust, they really step up to it. These are tough times, and yet people really want to reach out and help other people."