Feilding charity feels the pain
Feilding social services provider Manchester House is rallying community support as it rebuilds after finding its accounts on ‘‘the wrong side of zero’’.
A painful restructure, where the charity lost five staff and sold the Bowen St Senior Centre Hall, saved the charity from collapse. Now, Manchester House has turned to ensuring it never gets so close to disaster again.
Chairman Kevin Darragh said the organisation has taken a close look at how it can balance its income with the costs of helping Feilding’s needy.
Part of that is introducing a new, more structured system for gathering donations – including an option for people to make small annual contributions, he said.
Manchester House helps some of the community’s most vulnerable with everything from free counselling to food and family support, including running the Bowen St Senior Centre.
Just after Christmas the charity was in a desperate situation.
It had already lost $80,000 halfway through the financial year, right on the heels of a $190,000 loss in the previous year.
‘‘Our accounts were on the wrong side of zero [and] it wasn’t getting any better. Our debts were mounting and our reserves had long gone.’’
To survive, the charity needed a cost-cutting restructure.
Darragh said it was a hard choice to lay off five of the dedicated and close-knit staff of 35 employees. Most work part-time and volunteered for extra unpaid hours.
Putting balancing the books ahead of people went against everything Manchester House stands for, he said.
‘‘[But] people kept coming through the doors needing help. We couldn’t turn them away and we had to find a way to fund it.’’
To repay its debts, the charity sold Senior Centre Hall to the Manawatu¯ Community Trust, which leased it back to Manchester House for a small fee.
‘‘[The restructure] was a harrowing experience, but it saved us from closure.’’
Executive manager Ann Williamson said Manchester House ran an after-school activity programme and op-shops in Bulls and Feilding to top up its funding from government contracts and philanthropic grants. However, that only covered two-thirds of the charity’s operating costs.
Williams said Manchester House had scraped by on largely unprompted and ad-hoc donations to cover the rest in the past.
Now, the charity is supplementing that by asking people to sign on for annual donations of $20-$100 a year, and has plans to introduce a network of corporate sponsorship.
Government funds often came with requirements, but individual contributions could be used flexibly, Williams said. He hoped the new donation system will give the charity a more consistent pool of funds.