Story courtesy of CBS21 Watch the report here
DAUPHIN COUNTY, Pa — Shoppers around the Harrisburg area can often find the Salvation Army’s red kettles at places like Karns Foods, the Capital City Mall, and more.
However, this year there are fewer bell ringers for the Army's Red Kettle Campaign and donations have decreased as a result in this shortage of volunteers.
The Salvation Army says the lack of volunteers is just one of the reasons why they are seeing less donations this year.
The others are caused by changes in people’s shopping habits, like carrying less cash with them or shopping less in person.
This year, the Salvation Army of the Harrisburg Capital City Region says it's upped the fundraising goal this year since volunteers are serving more than 5,300 kids this holiday season.
“This was a tough year for people and so we saw record numbers of people coming to us in need of assistance,” explained Toni Mark, the resource development director for Harrisburg’s Salvation Army. “Everything is up and so at the end of the year people are going like, ‘I have nothing left over for Christmas.’”
Since fewer people carry cash on them, many red kettle locations are adding QR codes to the signs, but that does not seem to be increasing their donations.
Mark added, “I think they might feel like if they walk up to them they’ll be expected to make a donation or they have to apologize for not having cash or something.”
If the Salvation Army does not meet their $125,000 fundraising goal, then the organization will have to start making drastic changes.
“We have to do our best to strategize to either cut the costs, which we are doing every day,” commented Mark. “Or the reality is, we just can’t serve in the ways that we want to.”
To make matters even more alarming, around 40% of people that sponsored one of the organization’s angel tree tags did not return with any items, which leaves around 1,400 Christmas boxes not filled.
Mark commented, “We were thinking that about 40% of those boxes would be filled and it turns out they’re not filled, so we’re going to have to figure out how to fill 40% of the boxes.”
The good news is there is still time to donate.