(Courtesy) President Barack Obama declared March as Red Cross month. But Georgians struggling to make ends meet are finding it harder to donate to the organization.
March typically heralds the beginning of tornado season in Georgia. It’s a time when the Red Cross would normally gear up for disasters with blood and blankets, medical and moral aid and relief.
Like they did last month when twisters mauled areas in southern Georgia.
But Mari Wright of the Red Cross’s Albany branch say...
(Courtesy) President Barack Obama declared March as Red Cross month. But Georgians struggling to make ends meet are finding it harder to donate to the organization.
March typically heralds the beginning of tornado season in Georgia. It’s a time when the Red Cross would normally gear up for disasters with blood and blankets, medical and moral aid and relief.
Like they did last month when twisters mauled areas in southern Georgia.
But Mari Wright of the Red Cross’s Albany branch says donations in her area have slowed to a trickle:
"Many of our regular contributors, that would, say, donate a hundred dollars, are now giving us $25 dollars. People that were giving us $25 dollars or less… can’t give us anything… so we are probably at 85 – maybe 90 percent down, and that’s a considerable amount. It truly is."
Wright won’t reveal how much money 85 percent is, but it was considerable enough to almost shut down operations a few weeks ago.
That was until the United Way, local businesses and individual donors came through at the last minute with cash.
Red Cross officials in more urban areas, like Mitzi Oxford, who heads the West Central Georgia chapter in Columbus, say a larger donor base and funding from the national office helps - to an extent.
She says, however, that smaller donors - the mainstay of their fundraising - have cut back by some 60 percent. She gives the scenario of an average couple mulling expenses at the kitchen table:
"…and they’re saying, 'are we going to pay for our medicine this month, or are we going to eat?' Those people who might have sent a five dollar donation last month, this month may send a dollar or nothing – because they can’t afford to."
Not that larger donors aren’t hurting either, she adds:
"…so the donation that, two years ago, or after [Hurricane] Katrina, would have been a million dollars - this past year was a hundred thousand. That’s a big difference."
Oxford says, however, that fewer, smaller donations don’t necessarily equal lessened services to the public.
Her office relies on dozens of experienced volunteers to help carry the load – even as that workload gets a little heavier.
Oxford says the Red Cross is focusing on getting potential donors to their websites, to make giving a donation fast and easy.
Both Wright and Oxford say that, in the same way people have come to expect that the Red Cross will always be there - they’re now asking that the public be there for them.
Click here for more GPB coverage about the Red Cross, and here for more coverage about tornadoes.
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