You know the Great Recession still has a bite on the local economy when people calling the Rhode Island chapter of the United Way for help on its 211 emergency hotline used to be donors themselves and now need assistance from the state’s largest public charity.
The situation is no better at Crossroads Rhode Island in Providence, where “we have women sleeping on the floor of the conference room again,” said Karen Santilli, vice president of marketing and development.
The local United Way and Crossroads are not the only nonprofits struggling through a time of economic trouble, of course, but their plight is typical of the dilemma many charitable organizations across the nation face as donations have sharply decreased at the same time that demand for services is on the rise.
Tony Maione, president and CEO of the Providence-based United Way, said he has seen a “dramatic” increase in the number of calls his agency receives on the 211 emergency hotline, while direct donations have dropped approximately 5 percent, representing what he said is a loss of about $500,000 to $600,000 annually.
To counter this trend, the United Way is finding additional sources of revenue by reaching out to new donors and finding new applications for its 211 hotline that state government can utilize and, of course, pay for in the form of short-term contracts.
At Crossroads, which provides various services to the homeless from throughout the state, Santilli reported 103 families received help in the first six months of the year, a 54 percent increase from the same period last year. Homeless women coming to Crossroads are up 11 percent from a year ago, for a total of 229 clients. These are “huge increases,” she said.
Both the Crossroads family shelter, with room for 17 families, and the women’s shelter, with room for 61 persons, are full now at the end of summer, a time of the year when homelessness is less critical than winter, Santilli said. The private, nonprofit agency based on Broad Street also refers clients to other homeless shelters throughout Rhode Island, so Crossroads shelters represent just a part of the total statewide picture.
In the first six months of 2010, donations dropped 28 percent, Santilli said, representing a loss of about $250,000 from the sum budgeted. Generally, Santilli said, she seeks to raise about $2 million each year in individual and corporate donations. To achieve that goal, she is reaching out to what she called the agency’s “very loyal” base of donors and asking them to give more.
At Festival Ballet of Rhode Island, hopes are high in spite of a “fragile” financial state.
The nonprofit based on Hope Street on the East Side opened two satellite schools this month and, according to former Executive Director Alison Cariati, has made other advances in its programming and fundraising in spite of the tough economy.
Cariati spoke positively about the status of the ballet group when interviewed in early September, but on Sept. 13 she suddenly quit her job due to what published reports have described as differences over the direction of the company and unspecified personnel issues. Seven board members also resigned at the same time.
Don E. Wineberg, a board member who is now Festival spokesman, on Sept. 16 said the financial state of Festival Ballet is “fragile” and the board is taking various steps to avoid entering receivership.
He confirmed, as Cariati had said, that the group did try to work with an expanded budget this year in what he called “an aggressive, risk-taking” spending proposal that “we now realize we won’t be able to meet,” he said. The group’s budget is $1.8 million, Wineberg said.
An interim management committee has been formed to oversee operations, Wineberg said, and to work on restructuring the budget and other financial considerations. The interim committee will remain in charge until a managing director is found to replace Cariati, who had just finished her first year at Festival. New board members also will be recruited, Wineberg said, and the shows will go on.
“We are confident that Festival Ballet will continue,” he said.
GuideStar, a nonprofit research organization that compiles national data on nonprofits and philanthropic groups, released a survey conducted in June of public charities and private foundations to see how they fared in the first five months of 2010.
Although not the largest philanthropic organization in the state according to its assets (Rhode Island Foundation, a community foundation, is first), United Way is the largest public charity. For the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, the most recent available, the United Way distributed $15.25 million to the needy, according to the 2010 Providence Business News Book of Lists.
One method Maione uses to track the economy and its effect on United Way’s clientele is by keeping a careful eye on the number and nature of calls to its 211 hotline where, by simply dialing 211, callers can receive assistance, advice and/or referrals to help resolve an assortment of societal problems.
When the credit crunch was raging, Maione said most calls were from people looking for capital or credit; when the floods hit in the spring, victims of the soggy weather were the main callers; and as foreclosures continue, local residents looking for housing solutions jammed the phone lines.
“Now, we’re getting calls from people who say, ‘I used to be a United Way donor, but now I need help,’ ” Maione related. “These are middle-class folks who used to have two incomes, but maybe now only have one or none, who are really struggling.”
In general, the number of calls coming into the agency’s 211 line is on the increase, going from approximately 100,000 in 2008 to about 120,000 in 2009 and “we’re looking at 140,000 to 145,000 this year,” Maione said.
To compensate for fewer donations, Maione said, the agency has contracted out the services of the 211 system to the state – the R.I. Department of Elderly Affairs, for instance, is using it – and “doubling efforts” to recruit new donors.
“We’re going out and talking to companies that maybe haven’t been involved with us before,” Maione said. “Because of the economy the way it is, we can make a good case, a pretty compelling case.” •
