Salvation Army Kettle Campaign looks for more donations just days ahead of Christmas

Salvation Army national donations falling short National donations to the Salvation Army are down this holiday season compared to previous years.

With just days left in the Salvation Army’s annual Christmas Kettle Campaign, the city of Moncton, N.B., is feeling the holiday spirit.

“Last year this time we were at about $133,000 to $134,000. This year we’re at about $136,000, so we’re doing pretty well,” said Maj. James Anderson, with the Salvation Army Moncton branch.

While ahead of this time last year, he says they aren’t at the finish line yet. The hope is to raise $175,000 by the end of day on Christmas Eve in order to meet this year’s budgeted amount.

“We’re really hoping that that can happen because yes, it’s about helping now and helping families during the Christmas season, but these funds of course, as you know, assist us all throughout the year in terms of helping families and providing need,” he said.

“One of the biggest factors is the Christmas Distribution and last year we had around 525-ish. This year we’re probably going to break the 600 and what we’re seeing is we’re seeing a lot of newcomers and families with more children and seniors and so that’s the demographic shift that we’re noticing particularly this year.”

Money raised locally stays local to support programs in the community such as senior programs, after-school programs, drop-in centres for the homeless population, food programs and even camping programs.

Officials say each community determines how much they want to raise depending on how much they need to support their local supports and services.

“The principal amount of our budget and the principal amount of the ministries that we offer look to this time of year to carry us,” said Anderson.

This is a similar situation at Salvation Army locations across Canada.

In fact, officials say that the Christmas Campaign accounts for 65 per cent of the annual funding needed to support families and individuals across the Maritimes.

Maj. Pam Goodyear says on a national level, which distributes funds to Salvation Army locations on top of what is raised locally, hit some big roadblocks this year.

“One of our greatest challenges right now is that we’ve still been greatly impacted by the Canada Post strike and so our direct mail campaign has not been able to go ahead like it was in previous years. We’ve got 2.5 million mailers across Canada that weren’t able to get into the mail because of the strike,” she said.

Breaking it down, she says that accounts for about $10 million in donations, which accounts for about 50 per cent of their fundraising at this time of year.

“We will do what we can with the resources that we have. We never want to have to cut programs or cut our services, so we just put the appeal out to the public. They’re our partners,” she said.

While the postal strike has had the most significant impact, Goodyear says today’s economy is also playing a factor.

“We’re seeing in many of our communities is that we’ve got more new families coming to The Salvation Army looking for assistance than ever before … Across the Maritimes, it’s almost 60 per cent of the folks that are coming to us looking for help are new to ever having to access our services before,” she said.

Locally, kettles will be out in communities up until Christmas Eve. People can also donate online, over the phone or by mail now that postal services are moving again.

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