Fundraising shortfall for Salvation Army in Swift Current during its annual Christmas campaign
The Salvation Army in Swift Current did not reach the fundraising goals for the 2023 Christmas campaign, but still experienced a lot of community support and a large number of food donations.
Lieut. Bill and Renee Mailman, the corps officers at the Salvation Army in Swift Current, are grateful for the support.
“The community stepped up like crazy with food donations,” Bill said. “We’ve had so many food donations come over the Christmas season that I don’t know if we’ve ever seen this much come in during this time before. So that was really good. However, I’m not sure what it was, possibly because of the economy, but we were actually quite a bit down with our financial goals.”
The goal was to raise around $235,000 through the mail-out campaign and $65,000 from the kettle campaign for a total target of $300,000, but there was an overall shortfall of about $80,000.
“So it’s going to be a little bit of a hit, but I’m hoping the continued support throughout the year can help make that up,” he said.
He emphasized that it was wonderful to receive the level of support for the Christmas campaign that made it possible to raise around $220,000.
“That is fantastic,” he said. “It will help us to continue programs throughout the year. We kind of almost expected this going in, knowing just how the economy is and how people are struggling, and just even from how much people have been accessing the food bank. We do understand what’s happening.”
The Christmas campaign is their largest annual fundraiser for community services offered throughout the year, including community and family services such as the food bank, community meal and back-to-school backpack program, the Thrift Store, a restorative justice program offering mediation and alternative measures, as well as the Christmas food and toy hamper programs.
He felt the Salvation Army in Swift Current should be able to deal with this shortfall on their fundraising goals in the short term.
“We have a little bit to fall back on,” he said. “If we keep missing these goals year to year, we might actually have to start cutting back on what we can offer, but we’re not quite at that point yet.”
A key challenge during the Christmas campaign was sickness, which had an impact on the availability of volunteers at the different kettle locations.
“We had a lot of people coming down with things, having to cancel shifts,” Bill recalled. “It was just a really bad cold and flu season. So that was a struggle. Sometimes, we had to pull some kettles, because we couldn’t man them. So we had to have shorter hours.”
There were many highlights during the Christmas campaign, which were all related to the efforts by people to provide a helping hand. The amount of food donations meant the food bank is currently in a good situation.
“We had a lot of businesses step up and help with our hamper program,” he said. “We had a lot of people and businesses donate stuff towards our Christmas Eve packs or towards the hamper themselves or hours in volunteer work. So that was really helpful.”
Those volunteers helped to prepare 331 Christmas hampers. Some hampers were for a single person and others were for larger families.
There were 371 children registered for Christmas gifts and they received their toys in a different way than before. The toy hampers were pre-packed in previous years, but this time all donated gifts for children were placed in a toy room at the food bank. Parents or guardians were then able to select what they want to give to their child.
“That gave some agency to the parents of choosing what they wanted to give their child, instead of us saying here’s a gift,” Renee explained. “It seemed to be really well received. Our volunteers really enjoyed walking parents through and helping them pick out toys. We haven’t received any negative feedback and from what the volunteers heard, a lot of parents really enjoyed being able to browse and pick out the gifts.”
She referred to another aspect of the 2023 Christmas campaign that was enjoyable to those involved with the process.
“We really enjoyed doing the in-person registration,” she said. “That was a real highlight to be able to meet in-person. And then as well, I guess that translates into hamper distribution. We had volunteers walking parents and guardians through the store. So they were getting to spend time with them and just really have that human connection as they were picking out toys and gifts. COVID for a long time kept us separated and doing short interactions with people. So we’re really glad that we’re able to extend that time of interaction with people.”
The number of food bank appointments increased significantly since the start of the pandemic and they are expecting this trend to continue in 2024. It will therefore not be long before all the food donations from the Christmas campaign are used.
“When it comes to later in the year, people are still in need,” Renee said. “So those springtime and summer food drives are absolutely wonderful for us to be able to continue to work.”
She added that they remain grateful for the many ways the community continue to support the Salvation Army in Swift Current.