IF you’ve been chewing your nails, wondering what the next few months have in store for you, imagine what the mood is like for charities and nonprofit groups, which depend on the kindness of strangers to keep sending money their way.
“For the last 45 days we have not had a daily deposit,” said Mark Holleran, chief executive of Central Arizona Shelter Services, an organization of three homeless shelters in Phoenix. “That may not sound like a lot, but we always had some money coming in every day. I’ve been here 13 years and I’ve never seen this.”
Mr. Holleran describes the drop in small, daily donations as one of the many “little road signs” that he is seeing right now, signaling trouble ahead.
Another, he said, was when a neighboring charity, which had long donated food to his shelters, was forced to start charging them for it. “Their donations are down too, and they’re getting less in-kind donations,” he said.
Let’s pray about what our role as Christians should be in helping to fill the gap.
I read somewhere that on average American give about 1 to 2 percent. If more would give the minimum tithe, there would be more than enough to meet all these needs. Regrettably, it will be big government coming in to save the day. The main thing I do fault Bush with is that he did not do enough to avert this crisis three or four years ago, when it might have been possible. What a mess. And now we have elected a tax and spend Democrat. Move over, Great Britain, Canada and France. The next socialist welfare state, the USA, is joining in with the way you guys do it. Welcome to 40-50 percent effective tax rates. It is just a matter of time.
MDGs-like opportunities here and now. Maybe the ECUSA/TEC/GCC/EO-PAC can get off its 0.7% money for lobbying and do some donating actual goods.