Glad to be Wrong

>>Given the severity of our recession, I assumed that charitable giving in Southwest Florida had declined along with the economy. With the rise in unemployment, companies closing and business revenues suffering, it makes sense that individual and corporate donors would cut their philanthropic spending. I’m glad to tell you that I was wrong, at least in one significant instance.

When managing editor Jill Tyrer reported our cover story, “Help is on the Way” (please see page 20), she learned that The United Way of Lee, Hendry and Glades, the main conduit of charitable donations in those counties, last year experienced a 6 percent increase in contributions over the previous year. Cliff Smith, president of the group, theorized that donors feel more inclined than ever to give because they have personal connection to family, friends and loved ones who are out of work or are experiencing other difficulties. Most contributors do so without knowing the needy individuals on the receiving end; the act of benevolence is satisfactory enough.

For this article, Jill talked to some recipients who benefit through donations from businesses and their employees, putting names and faces to a traditionally anonymous process and relating their compelling stories. For example, 9-year-old Arebella Sanchez, whose caretakers face health and financial challenges, attends after-school care at a Boys & Girls Club, an organization funded in part by the United Way. But the club also receives help from individuals such as Ted and Marilyn Todd, who own an Allstate Insurance Agency. “As far as my individual time and money, it’s the Boys & Girls Clubs,” Ted Todd says.

There are other uplifting accounts in the story, illustrating how giving continues, even in difficult times.

For this year, I will not presume that business and personal donations will go down, despite predictions of lingering economic woes. Plus, Cliff Smith says that his United Way chapter’s goal is slightly above 2008’s tally. The good money is on them.