Charities rely on unpredictable giving

By Margaret Steen
Knight Ridder News Service

SAN JOSE, Calif. — Its bell ringers have been banned from Target stores and its donors are still jittery about the economy.

Salvation Army Lt. Col. Don Mowery accepts a credit card donation in Phoenix. Salvation Army officials hope the cashless option will grab new donors and help make up a projected $200,000 loss locally in kettle donations following a decision by Target stores nationally to ban bell ringers. Matt York • Associated Press

"The first couple of weeks, our fund-raising was down about $1,000 per day in kettles across the San Jose area," said Maj. Douglas Tollerud, the group's Santa Clara County coordinator. "In the last week we've actually eliminated that loss, and the fund raising is picking up."

The Salvation Army's story shows how unpredictable fund raising can be for nonprofits that depend on it, especially this season, as many face cuts in government support.

For many of about a dozen groups interviewed, this year's donations are about the same as last year's, or even up a bit.

Still, uncertainty lingers, especially for two categories of nonprofits. Those that provide food and toys around the holidays hope they'll get enough donations in time. And those that have traditionally relied on car donations wonder how a change in tax law for 2005 will affect donations.

Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties is one of the nonprofits that need donations soon to make the holiday deadline. It is 11,000 pounds short of its goal of raising 120,000 pounds of poultry, said Jenny Luciano, director of communications. Donations have slowed in recent weeks, she said.

Another nonprofit that provides food and toys during the holidays, Sacred Heart Community Service, is on track to raise as much as it did last year but had hoped to raise more, said Debra Jones, director of development and communications.

"I think people are being very cautious with their philanthropic dollars," Jones said.

For nonprofits like the Salvation Army that rely on donations of used cars, a change in the tax law for 2005 means a few more cars donated now, but a lot more uncertainty about next year. In 2005, donors will generally be able to deduct from their income taxes only the amount the charity actually receives when it sells the car, rather than the donor's estimate of the vehicle's fair market value.

That means some donors are rushing to get their cars in this year. Capt. Howard Bennett of the Salvation Army said car donations were running almost 20 percent ahead of last year.

Goodwill also has seen an increase in car donations, said Frank Kent, president and chief executive officer of Goodwill Industries of Silicon Valley. The group has about 40 cars to sell now, compared with about 25 typically.

Still, it's not clear how big an effect the change will have on donors or charities. Not everyone who donates a car is motivated by the prospect of a tax deduction, said Andrew Tait, director of operations for the Society of St. Vincent de Paul's Council of Santa Clara County.

Those who are may try to determine which charities will get the most money for their donation.

"The change could actually help organizations like the Salvation Army," said Bennett. "We're one of the few charities that actually sells the vehicles ourselves."

In anticipation of the change, Goodwill is preparing to sell cars itself as well. But not every non-profit is equipped to sell cars directly to consumers.

"I am very concerned about what's going to happen to the car donation funding next year," said Paula Skuratowicz, executive director of the Polly Klaas Foundation in Petaluma. The group gets 85 percent of its funding from selling donated cars at auction.

She said she isn't planning to change the foundation's method of reselling the cars — at least not yet.

"We're not about cars, we're about helping missing kids," she said.