Mixed Results for Salvation Army Christmas Campaigns
Prince George, B.C. – There is good news and bad news in the final tallies from the Salvation Army’s Annual Christmas campaigns.
On the positive side, the Kettle Campaign raised $242,573.52 That’s $20 thousand more than was raised last year, but about $7.5 thousand short of the $250 thousand dollar goal that had been set.
Then there’s the Tree of Lights campaign. It fell far short of its $50 thousand dollar goal, coming in at $24,454.98
Salvation Army Business Manager Bill Glasgow says the totals shouldn’t hurt the Salvation Army’s programs and services in Prince George as there are other fundraisers held during the year which can offset the shortfalls. “We have our annual toy drive in September, and food drives” says Glasgow, “Since much of the funding goes towards supplying the food bank, we are hopeful our food drives this year will help keep the shelves full.”
The real question is what to do about the Tree of Lights. A tradition for 29 years in Prince George, the amount raised from that campaign has been dwindling year after year. “That’s something I will have to discuss with our committee and see what their thoughts are about the Tree of Lights. It does consume a lot of time and it just doesn’t seem to be doing as well as we had hoped” says Glasgow. ” I would like to see some way of keeping it running and improve the results, we’ve seen it go down every year and it’s sad because it’s such a great fundraiser and great tradition in the City to see that tree sitting on top of the Coast (hotel) so we’ll have to put some thought into it for next year to keep it around or what we can do to make the whole thing better.”
Comments
Save a tree in the forest. The novelty has worn off.
The kettle program will go the same way as well, unless you start to rebrand yourself as well. Same old faces, thus getting less volunteers.
Start doing some image campaigns into your community. We all have to work pretty hard to make a living. Than your looking for charity from the working person. When we keep seeing the same old people in the line ups. Throw us some success stories. Throw us a bone. Give us a reason to give.!!!!!
How do you give towards the tree of lights? I gave towards the kettles on more then one occasion. Maybe that’s the problem?
As we move ever closer to a cashless society, perhaps the Salvation Army needs to embrace some crowd-sourcing techniques. Their local website doesn’t even have a way to donate online.
Cheetos, we go to the inn of the north to donate to tree of lights. Anything over a certain amount comes with a tax receipt.
Hope this helps for next year.
Thanks abcdefg – Well that’s the problem, just too inconvenient. I think Brother Gecko is on the right track. The Salvation Army should have a website set up along with what they are currently doing so that one can donate to either or both campaigns. Maybe negotiate with a charge card company a discount on a card charge fee. Or have different kettles, red for the kettle campaign and maybe a green kettle for the tree.
I think there used to be more publicity for the tree. They had a light up and something at the civic centre plaza that brought people downtown.
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