Too little money and too much need are afflicting Syracuse-area charities.
”It’s a real indication of the overall economic downturn,” said Beth Broadway, director for Interfaith Works. The group is an alliance of religious groups that provide social services to refugees, the poor, the elderly and homeless.
Interfaith Works is among several local non-profit agencies facing a three-way squeeze of government cutbacks in funding, smaller donations from corporations and individuals and great demands for their services. The Salvation Army and Catholic Charities also trying to make ends meet this year.
The problems each face include:
- Possible cuts in state funding
Each non-profit must wait for the state budget to pass in the New York Assembly and Senate. The deadline for that is April 1 but the state legislature seldom meets that deadline. In the budget proposed by Gov.David Paterson, the Salvation Army stands to lose up to $280,000 from budget cuts. Catholic Charities faces budget cuts that threaten its parent education and youth development program.
- Reductions in corporate and private donations
As of March 15, the United Way of Syracuse was still over $900,000 short of its campaign goal. The United Way sends individual and corporate donations to nonprofit agencies across Central New York. It is a major source of funding to the nonprofits, which also raise money from private and corporate donations.
Marcia Harrington, United Way’s vice president of marketing and communications, urged other nonprofits to be patient as the organization tries to raise as much as it can by its fundraising deadline of April 15. The United Way has received fewer donation from area corporations and individuals, she said.
- Increased demand for services
Demand is up anywhere from 18 to 28 percent for services provided at the Salvation Army, say its officials. At Interfaith Works, its director, Beth Broadway, worries that smaller donations from private givers may jeopardize the organization’s spiritual care program. That program places chaplains in jails around the region. Interfaith Works, said Broadway, is facing a 20-percent reduction in corporate funding from last year. In part, she said, that’s from a 7-percent dip in contributions from the United Way.
At the Salvation Army, executive director Linda Wright, expresses dismay with state government’s difficulties in passing a budget. “This kind of chaos in our leadership does not help our state to run well,” Wright said. The Salvation Army, she said, is facing possible elimination of several outreach programs.
These are the toughest times for the Salvation Army in Syracuse since the chapter opened here in 1883, said Wright. In the 1970s, she said, an infusion of funding from the state government allowed the organization to grow in size and mission to include counseling, mentoring and education programs. With the state also in a budget crunch, said Wright, “We’re not saying ‘Don’t cut us. ’” She added, “We recognize that everyone is challenged to find this money somewhere.”
At Catholic Charities, spokeswoman Toni Maxwell, summed up the frustration among non-profits as they wait for state lawmakers to pass a budget. “We don’t even have the worst-case scenario,” Maxwell said. “We’re doing the best we can with the resources we have.”
(Brian Hayden is a senior newspaper journalism major.)
-30-
