Fundraising

“ Q Any reason why that policy from the campaign would change, and are there any other fundraising schedules -- MR. FLEISCHER: Frankly, this is our first fundraiser, so this is the first time we've really had to focus on it in the President's new capacity as President. So it's a coverage decision that we make, just like all other coverage decisions; as the event comes up, we focus on it. Q Will the event in Little Rock be open? MR. FLEISCHER: That's what we're working on right now. Q Will there be other fundraisers next week? ”

“ I don’t want to get — I said, I would prefer — you know, I was thinking she was bringing in some people, fellow people that she would be working with in fund raising, some people that might be potential donors, American citizens. ”

“ There is no point, in which the economy of charity has more improved, than in the present mode of combining many small contributions, for sustaining enlarged and systematic plans of charity. If all the half-dollars, which are now contributed to aid in organized systems of charity, were returned to the donors, to be applied by the agency and discretion of each, thousands and thousands of the treasures, now employed to promote the moral and intellectual wants of mankind, would become entirely useless. ”

“ After that, classes and clubs for reading and discussion would easily follow.
“I have spoken of two sections, the students and the teachers; the third might comprise those who could give neither work nor study, but who would give money. This money might go to any one of a dozen fields of work which the organization would help support.
“Each donor could specify the purpose for which he gives his money, whether it be temperance-reform work, free kindergartens, industrial schools, payment for detection and prosecution of law-breakers, or general running expenses. ”

“ Setting aside the great saving that could and would be effected in the management by united efforts, a much larger sum might be given to the legitimate object of each charity, and a systematic and efficient check upon each person receiving relief could be accomplished.
The vast sums annually given to established charities and benevolent institutions, form but a small item in the sum total of expenditure for charity. Tradesmen, and indeed individuals of every class, are in the habit of making continual donations to persons unknown, and frequently unworthy. ”

“ Second, there must be perfect unanimity [Pg 97] between themselves. We must be assured that every one wanted us to go. Our part would be hard enough then; and finally we must be sure they had some funds to distribute.
Of the amount of these funds no mention was made by us, and I remember a feeling of good-natured amusement as I heard the officers of this untried effort at raising funds speak of "millions." It was easy to discern that they were more accustomed to the figures of a banking establishment than a charity organization dependent on the raising of funds. ”

“ The investment in this hospital to date is about $9,000,000.
If we can get away from charity, the funds that now go into charitable enterprises can be turned to furthering production--to making goods cheaply and in great plenty. And then we shall not only be removing the burden of taxes from the community and freeing men but also we can be adding to the general wealth. We leave for private interest too many things we ought to do for ourselves as a collective interest. We need more constructive thinking in public service. ”

“ Now, this evening, I found that a donation of 100l. had come in at my house during my absence, the disposal of which was entirely left to me. I took not the whole of this donation for the current expenses for the Orphans, but only one half, and the other half for the Building Fund. The funds for the various Schools, for the circulation of the Holy Scriptures and Tracts, and for missionary objects, need nothing for at least six weeks to come. ”

“ Besides all these things, a "proper" donation party is expected to carry along its own supper, during which, sometimes, a collection is taken up and a purse of money presented to the parson. A good donation party, given by a generous lot of church people, is a thing not to be despised by the recipient. Store-cupboards, cellars, and wardrobes are frequently stocked for a whole year to come, and the minister is thus able to put by, for the education of his children, a goodly sum of money out of his cash salary. ”

“ For thirty-seven years the profession has conducted the most efficient and one of the greatest charities I know of, the Actors' Fund of America. Any one in the theater, from scrub woman to star, may call upon it. With very small dues it has amassed assets of two million dollars. Donations, bequests and benefits account for its wealth. It gives away something like one hundred and fifty thousand dollars a year without conditions or red tape, and does it with an overhead of only fourteen per cent where normally much less than fifty cents of every charity dollar reaches the persons intended. ”

“ And, if you like, imagine that the Government grant had been four times as much as it was, and that the charity had amounted to four times as much as it did, and then fancy having to keep your family for five months with two pounds eight shillings!
It is true that some of the members of the committee would have been very glad if they had been able to put the means of earning a living within the reach of every man who was willing to work ”

“ A vote of the National Council or of the Annual Meeting of a missionary body, or of a State Conference, that a society should receive an increase of funds amounts to little, unless the individual donor in the church will increase his gifts.
A little increase here aggregates much. If every member will add five per cent. or ten per cent., it will be little to each, but will be great in the total. May we ask our readers to lay this to heart with the query of each to himself, "Is it not my duty to increase my individual contribution?" ”

“ Philanthropy finds favor in the public [283] eye, and charity becomes a cheap and easy means of courting public opinion. The philanthropist with means for gratifying his passion of pity, or the ambitious aspirant for public favor with cash to invest in public opinion, finds himself soon surrounded with a multitude of itchy-palmy hands to help him spend his money to buy what he is after, and at the same time obtain profit for themselves. Consequently, objects of charity become opportunities to be prized and made the most of. ”

“ So I want each of you to take one of these cards and go round to all your friends to see how much you can collect. It doesn't matter how trifling the amounts are, because the smallest donations will be thankfully received.
'Now I hope you will all do your very best. Ask everyone you know; do not refrain from asking people because you think that they are too poor to give a donation, but remind them that if they cannot give their thousands they can give the widow's mite. ”

“ We have scarcely wherewithal to meet the ordinary demands of life, and straightway are told to subscribe to various new societies—repeal funds—agricultural clubs—O’Connell tributes—and Mathew testimonials. This, to any short-sighted person, might appear a very novel mode of filling our own pockets. There are one-idea’d people in the world, who can only take up the impression which, at first blush, any subject suggests; they, I say, might fancy that a continued system of donation, unattended by anything like receipt, is not exactly the surest element of individual prosperity. ”

“ The grants act as a bounty on the establishment and continuance of charitable institutions, homes for children, hospitals, &c., but not on the expansion of the voluntary charitable funds and efforts that should maintain them; and thus charitable homes exist in which charity in its truer sense may have little part, but in which the chief motive of the administration may be to support sectarian interests by public subsidies. Claimants for relief have little scruple in turning such institutions to their own account ”

“ There are charity balls, charity parties, charity entertainments, and charity funds of all sorts. One great paper in New York is raising an old-clothes fund, and another great paper a bread fund, and in Ashland, Wis., they have made a charity mincepie twenty-two feet in circumference and a quarter of a ton in weight. The politicians are always large givers of alms, politicians of the Tammany type especially; but even Tammany has special relief committees at work. ”

“ In the beginning of my article I have referred to "donation parties," and have said that some ministers are guaranteed a certain number of dollars and a "donation" as a yearly salary. The donation party is, I believe, a strictly American institution, which originated [331] about a century ago in the very thinly settled regions of the United States among the pioneers. It is still extremely popular in country towns and farming neighbourhoods. Say that a clergyman receives eight hundred dollars a year and a "donation," or it may be that he is promised two donations. ”

“ But I wish people would do nearly right. I wish they would act honorably and uprightly and consistently and properly, and all meet their obligations and pursue an upright course. But there is again another question to be adjusted in this matter. It is not the value of the money alone nor how it will affect me; but how are others affected by it? A perpetual fund was established, which fund contemplated a continual help, a continual return of the money loaned and perpetual fund kept always on hand, for the assistance of those requiring aid. This fund was not designed as a gift, but as a loan ”

“ This amount may be appropriated in actual donations by most business men, as they usually have more or less loose money on hand. By those who cannot do this, it may be charged in a book kept for the purpose at the close of each week or specified period for appropriation—"one, five, ten, or fifty dollars due to charity,"—and on the return of their capital, pay this debt as conscientiously as they pay any other. Then, if on the reception of their entire product, they find they have not given as much as the claims of the destitute demand, they can easily make up the deficit. ”

“ In general, the funds of all the public charitable institutions have greatly diminished, while the number of claimants has much increased, which causes frequent and urgent appeals to the public benevolence. ”

“ All come to us in answer to prayer, and are received by us as answers to prayer; and with every donation, however small, we receive thins a fresh encouragement, to continue in prayer, and have, as it were, another earnest from our Heavenly Father, that at last He not only will give larger sums, but the whole amount which is needed for the Building Fund. ”

“ First of all ask those who you will feel certain will give; then ask all those who you think may possibly give; and, finally, ask all those who you feel certain will not give; and you will be surprised to find that many of these last will donate abundantly.
'If your friends are very poor and unable to give a large donation at one time, a good plan would be to arrange to call upon them every Saturday afternoon with your card to collect their donations. And while you are asking others, do not forget to give what you can yourselves. ”

“ There have been, I believe, over 2,200 applicants for relief to the fund which has been raised for the benefit of the sufferers of so-called Philanthropic Finance, and among the number it appears there are nearly 1,400 single women and widows. ”

“ III. That the establishment of Provident Funds, whose tendency is to give a powerful impulse to the promotion of habits of providence, frugality, and self-reliance, at the same time that they confer immediate benefit on the poor, is a most important auxiliary to the operations of this Society, and contributes in a high degree to the effecting of that moral and religious improvement which is the great end and object of all its endeavours. ”

“ Can we witness to God and angels and to our brethren, that we are willing to put forth our hands and contribute to swell the sum total of this Perpetual Emigrating Fund, according to the ability God has given us? Are we willing to put forth our hand and aid in rolling forth this work, by collecting the people together from wretchedness and want? What shall we gain by doing this? We shall gain numbers that will look up to us as their friends and benefactors, and hail us as their saviors. ”

“ The gift once given, the donor loses all interest in its bestowal; funds are squandered on the most paltry objects, and the general effect seems to be that money given in this way becomes money wasted. ”

“ The problem most difficult to solve, and which creates intense anxiety, is how these hundreds of dependents, unable to find employment to which they can adapt themselves, are to be fed during the coming winter. This can only be done with the kind permission of the Red Cross, to draw upon our share of the fund, which that worthy organization is endeavoring to swell through its urgent appeals to the people of the whole State for money donations, added to that furnished by local contributors. ”

“ Besides the extraordinary sources, which consist partly in the restitution which hypocrites and relations who avoid their duty are obliged to make, and partly out of fines which are given to the poor fund, or may be hereafter given, are sources for charity from donations from the district fund, and from loans or from taxes.
The yearly produce of all charities belongs to the poor institutions, and is used for their purposes. With the establishments for the poor are united the already existing or still accumulating capitals of one or other of the poor institutions ”