Samaritan Card Offers Way to Boost Charitable Giving

Posted by Fundraising Pro on June 12, 2009

Schools may be out for summer and church activities may slow down as families go away on vacation. But this a vital time for school fundraising groups and Christian fundraising groups to plan their key fundraisers for fall.

Never has there been a better time to sell the Samaritan Card as your group’s major fundraising activity. Newly released data for 2008 reveals that charitable giving by Americans fell by 2 percent last year.

The Giving USA Foundation, which has conducted the survey since 1956, expressed relief that 2008’s decrease was not steeper, considering that many Americans lost more than 2 percent of their wealth during the year.

However, the report highlights the challenging circumstances facing America’s nonprofits, many of which have been forced to lay off staff and cut programs because of declining revenue.

Particularly hard hit were social services charities which suffered a 12 percent drop in donations at a time when most of them were experiencing increased demand for their services.

The last similar overall drop in giving was n 1987, the year of the Black Monday stock market collapse.

Although experts agree that this past year’s drop could have been worse, it still means that nonprofits will have to do more with less.

The Samaritan Card, a wallet-sized discount shopping card, offers people a way to be charitable in difficult times and a way for organizations to easily raise the money they need for their causes.