Indiana News

Salvation Army’s Red Kettle campaign comes up short

INDIANAPOLIS (WOWO): The Salvation Army’s annual Red Kettle Campaign came in under goal this year, and that could mean cuts.

Their goal was $3.5 million; they came in just over $300-thousand short of that goal. Major Bob Webster, Indiana Divisional Commander of The Salvation Army says they are very thankful to all the generous Hoosiers that donated this year, but the reality is they need more help. Webster says unlike a lot of other organizations the Salvation Army spends what it has, and doesn’t really have anything in the way of reserves to keep up their programs after they set their budgets.

Why people donated less will always be a mystery but Major Webster says there were a lot of factors this last year—there weren’t enough volunteers at times to man the kettles, warm weather didn’t add much to the Christmas spirit, it rained pretty heavily on their two biggest days, and the economy wasn’t doing great at the end of the year.

Their fiscal year runs through September and they are always accepting donations—Maj. Webster hopes that they will continue to have more coming in and reduce the services that they will ultimately have to cut. The areas that they will have to cut otherwise could be considered essential services for those in need and dependent on the organization.

He says they are working on ways to include digital donations to their annual Red Kettle campaigns, with some sort of card reader that would allow you to use a card instead of cash–since not everyone carries cash these days–but they want to ensure that process is as safe as possible and that nobodies information is at risk of being stolen. That alone could open up more revenue opportunities in the future.

Donations can always be made to the Salvation Army online.

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