Salvation Army Hoping for Final Fundraising Push
Prince George, B.C. – It’s crunch time for the Prince George Salvation Army.
With less than two days to go before the end of its annual fundraising efforts, they remain off pace for both their Kettle and Tree of Lights campaigns.
Bill Glasgow of the Prince George Salvation Army – photo 250News
As of Tuesday morning, the Kettle campaign had raised $209,478 of its $250,000 target, while the Tree of Lights was lagging badly behind it’s goal of $50,000 at just over $21,000.
But business manager Bill Glasgow hasn’t given up hope, at least with the kettles.
“Typically, the last couple of days we get a big push and we’re already starting to see the numbers get bigger, which is a very good sign,” he says. “People are doing their last minute shopping and we normally see a spike of about $10,000 a day to about $13,000 a day.”
Though the Salvation Army is off target for the kettles, Glasgow says they remain ahead of last year’s pace (which raised $223,628).
Sadly, the same can’t be said of the Tree of Lights, which raised $32,972 last year. With that in mind, Glasgow admits he isn’t sure whether or not it has a future.
“It’s been brought up, is this campaign worth it? Because it is a community partnership with several other industries in town so we normally have a debriefing meeting in January and we’ll talk about it.”
Will missing fundraising targets mean having to axe some of programs the Salvation Army administers?
“We try not to axe programs. We try to modify them. That might mean we have to use a lot more volunteers. It makes doing what we do a lot more difficult.”
In the meantime Glasgow says plans are already afoot to help boost numbers next year.
“We’re thinking next year of doing an e-kettle. Basically having it on our website where you can go and make your donations online.”
He says they’ve already rejected the idea of employing debit machines.
“That just opens up a whole new can of worms, security problems and training issues for volunteers. Do they even want to use them?”
And though it’s late in the game, he says they are still looking for kettle volunteers to make up for last minute cancellations.
If you’re interested in helping out, call either 250-596-4673 or 250-961-4029. The campaign ends at 2 pm tomorrow.
Comments
I have probably dropped about $20 in change over the past few weeks.
I think they need to do something with image. the public is inundated with people looking for money, and just getting sick of it.
The Salvation Army needs to show off the success stories. Not the continued line of same faces looking for hand outs.
The Salvation Army is a Christian denominational church . That’s the first sentence in their wiki page . Thank goodness the other 97% of churches don’t do the kettle thing . It’s a tough enough gauntlet to run as it is . Yes they do good works but as with all entities like them . The main idea is to keep its system alive and thriving .
He spoke
I think they need to do something with image. the public is inundated with people looking for money, and just getting sick of it.
The Salvation Army needs to show off the success stories. Not the continued line of same faces looking for hand outs.
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This nailed it better than I ever could have said. Take a close look at those in line at the food bank, waiting patiently, posting on facebook about how long the line is, posting from the newest Iphone dressed in name brand clothes.
This right here has stopped me right in my tracks from ever donating be it time, money or groceries. Someone please show me someone truly in need and I’ll do what I can but I just can’t justify donating to any organization that is willing to deal with the “handouts”
On that note I saw a guy begging on the way into Superstore, not once but twice hours apart. The second time I saw him I wondered to myself if people quit giving this guy whatever, would he put those hours into looking for work or actually working?
Go ahead and kick the crap out of me, just my opinion.
Signed,
Scrooge.
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