Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 2005. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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Washington Blade - December 23, 2005
Katherine Volin
"I don't' think it's all about Santa Claus," says Craig Shniderman, executive director of Food & Friends, a local organization that provides meals to people suffering from life-threatening illnesses, about the increase in financial donations to his organization during the holiday season. "I think the IRS gives an impetus for this as well."
Local gay nonprofits say they are happy to receive donations, whatever the spirit behind the gifts.
"We're really grateful for whatever people can offer," says Kim Mills, communications director for Whitman-Walker Clinic, a gay health organization in Washington.
Rising gas prices and what Kathleen DeBold termed "donor fatigue" have had an impact on donations this year.
"I'm hoping that our people still have enough energy, having survived Katrina and tsunamis and the war," says DeBold, executive director of locally-based national lesbian health organization the Mautner Project. "I'm hoping that they'll still have something left to give, because we really count on them and appreciate everything."
Shniderman says this year's catastrophic hurricane season dealt his organization a financial setback.
"There was some drop, which we think is going to be temporary, in corporate contributions that is directly attributable to the hurricanes, but those are transitory kinds of problems," Shniderman says.
SEVERAL ORGANIZATIONS ASKED for gas cards to help contend with rising fuel prices.
"Just a couple of trips to Johns Hopkins really eats up your fuel budget," says DeBold, whose organization doesn't receive funding from D.C., Virginia or Maryland.
The group also could use everything from stickers to decorate mail sent to ill clients to laptops computers.
"We really count especially on the kindness of the local community," DeBold says, adding that her organization needs a refrigerator for its employees, chewing gum for its clients who are trying to stop smoking and portable storage bins with handles so they can better carry outreach materials.
"If anyone wants to give us gift certificates to Office Depot or Staples or CVS, gift cards are great," she says.
Ron Simmons, executive director of local AIDS organization Us Helping Us, says the group needs better transportation to help carry cargo around town.
"We do need a van for our outreach - our condom distribution program," Simmons says.
Simmons added that his organization can always use condoms, but they prefer the condoms come directly from the manufacturer.
Lisa Butenhoff, communications director for Food & Friends, says the organization needs perishable and non-perishable food, microwave ovens and a car to bring food to its clients. "All of our clients need microwaves," she says.
Shniderman says Food & Friends needs help to make sure it can continue to serve its growing list of clients.
"The challenge so much is not whether the contributions are significant," Shniderman says. "Whether those contributions can keep up with an increasing number of clients. There's always a tendency for disasters to temporarily avert donor attention, but I think in a community in Washington, which is fundamentally charitable and relatively affluent, people have a tendency to remember their neighbors - in the gay community and in the general community."
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