EDMONTON — Edmontonians gave big gifts to suffering charities this Christmas, but one charity says it still needs hundreds of thousands of dollars as it rolls into donation-dry January.
“I think we’re (feeling) a little bit down. I guess we still have faith that it’s going to happen, one way or another,” said Deb Cautley, executive director of the Youth Emergency Shelter Society.
Like several Edmonton charities, YESS faced a sizable shortfall leading into Christmas.
By Dec. 23, YESS had only collected $283,000 against a goal of $1 million, with a deadline of Jan. 17, said Cautley.
“This year (donations) were just down a bit — well, a lot,” she said. “When you have a tight budget as it is, about the only thing you can do is cut programs.”
YESS had $600,000 banked by Sunday — a significant jump, but still well short of its goal.
That has the charity nervous heading into January, Cautley said.
“We find that generally right after Christmas, the donations fall off,” she said.
They’re already trying to adapt to a donations shortfall by talking to funders, boosting bottle collecting and drafting reduced budgets.
For a couple of other social agencies, the Christmas surge in donations was enough to make up for the recession reduction.
“Between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, there certainly was an increase,” said Sam Breakey, executive director for the Mustard Seed, a group that provides meals, clothes and counselling.
Totals hadn’t been tallied. But as of Dec. 23, they needed to raise $459,000 by year’s end.
“We may be a little bit short, we may be a little bit over,” said Breakey. “We’re anticipating we’ll come through OK. We had confidence people would come through.”
The goal was set higher this year at Edmonton’s Food Bank due to increased need — but the charity managed to meet the raised bar, said executive director Marjorie Bencz.
“I haven’t got any totals from monetary donations, but I’m very confident we’ve met our goal of $900,000,” she said. Last year they collected $650,000.
“I think people were just a little more cautious (due to the recession). With time, people became more aware of the needs of charities, and that helped us in the last couple of weeks.”
All the charities interviewed said they need donations to drum on in the new year.
“People are not thinking of charities the same way they do at Christmas or other festive times of the year,” said Bencz.