There’s a certain out-of-sight, out-of-mind quality to giving. Letters come in the mail from this or that organization, reminding us that it’s time to donate again. People stand in front of red kettles at Christmas, ringing bells, to get our attention. The offering plate at church is passed around — just in case we were going to forget — that the electricity and church’s pastor and staff all need funding.
Without those gentle reminders, we wonder how the receipts would look.
The point is, we rather depend on those little alarm clocks going off to spur our actions. Many of us are perfectly happy to write a check, but life moves quickly, and without those nudges, scarily, we might not think to take action on our own.
Is that human nature or just the way we’ve been programmed? Whatever the reason, there is some fear from nonprofits as we head into the fall United Way campaign, and, like everything else that has had to alter course in the past few months, the culprit is the viral pandemic we find ourselves in.
First, let’s talk about where things stand now. As Leslie Dorn said to The Commercial recently, needs are up and funding is down. Dorn would know, as she is the executive director of the United Way, and her organization has a hand in helping support 22 nonprofits in town. Those agencies are a collection of outfits that, in many ways, tighten the net that catches and protects many in our society from falling into the abyss.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
The thing is, there are more people in the pain or near-pain category now. Jobs have gone by the wayside. Businesses have closed or at least are not operating in the same capacity as they were. People may not be able to work because of compromised health. Or maybe they themselves have gotten sick from the coronavirus. Unemployment and payroll protection helped for awhile, but much of that is far in the rearview mirror now, and life is back to being difficult. The bottom line, as Dorn said, is that many more people need help than in the past.
And on the other end of the spectrum is giving. To listen to executives at nonprofits is to hear story after story of not being able to hold this or that annual fundraiser. The United Way helps these agencies, but the agencies themselves aggressively go after their own funding sources, except a lot of those avenues are blocked, what with social distancing and rules on large gatherings, as well as the fear people have of attending such events — for any reason.
So that’s the status at the moment. But there’s more anxiety. The United Way itself will, next month, kick off its own annual campaign. For more than three decades now, the community has stepped up to give, to the tune of more than a million dollars of giving each and every year. It’s this particular fundraiser that keeps the 22 agencies and the United Way fed for an entire year.
Dorn will say that she has complete faith that local giving will happen again. But she also will say that the current state of affairs has her scared. The United Way’s bread-and-butter fundraising technique is to go into businesses and talk, face to face, with dozens of people at a time, explaining that the United Way needs their money and appreciates their money and that this is what the various agencies do when they get their money. All of that face-to-face interaction is gone.
Replacing it will be recorded video segments and online elements such as Zoom meetings and the like. Even a good Zoom meeting is a far cry from listening in person to an agency director speak passionately about their organization. But that’s the way it is.
Like Dorn, we have every confidence that the United Way campaign will be a success. Pine Bluff is known far and wide for its generosity. But we also acknowledge that these are difficult times and that even some of those who would normally give may not be able to do so because they, perhaps, have had covid-related reversals in their own lives.
It is for that reason that we write this today. As Dorn said, figure out what your commitment was last year. If you went to a fundraiser for your favorite charity and had a grand time and bought silent auction items and laid down more cash to play games and then threw more money into a hat at the end of the evening, think about writing a check for the whole amount and sending it in to that organization. Their needs are even greater than they were last year, and while the fundraisers will surely be back next year, they need your help now.
And when the United Way kicks off its campaign, consider this your wake-up call and be there for them, too. To help them is to help us all.