August 19, 2012 | Read Time: 2 minutes
The nation’s capital and its surrounding suburbs boast areas with both intense need for charitable help and high giving rates, such as Washington’s southeastern quadrant and across its border with Prince George’s County.
While other neighborhoods and towns may have more to give, people in the county tend to give a much higher percentage of their discretionary income to charity.
Take Capitol Heights, Md., a working-class suburb of about 5,000 people that borders Washington. It features a higher poverty rate than most other towns in the metropolitan region. It also has another distinction: Residents who itemize their tax returns give 18 percent of their discretionary income to charity—the highest share in metropolitan Washington.
For organizations in moderate-income areas, the question often becomes what gives us the best hope of growth. Charity leaders who grapple with that question have some tips for others seeking new donors:
Go beyond the neighbors. United Communities Against Poverty, in Capitol Heights, has found support by reaching out to neighboring counties and inviting outside philanthropists to see its operations, which include a day care center, emergency food system, financial education, a homeless shelter, job training, and help for battered women.
The organization, known by its acronym, UCAP, raises only 1 percent of its $3.8-million annual budget from individuals but it hopes to turn the tide by wooing the wealthy from elsewhere. After it entertained a well-heeled group last September, UCAP received a $10,000 gift on the spot from an executive at an insurance company in neighboring Montgomery County, Md.
“I was really moved by the stories of the women who had been abused,” says the donor, Alan Meltzer, senior chief executive officer of the Meltzer Group, in Bethesda, Md. “It’s an incredible place. I’m sure we’ll be giving again.”
His own impoverished background and the fact that his company is doing more business in Prince George’s also influenced his decision. “I believe in giving back to the areas where we work,” Mr. Meltzer says. “In some ways, our gifts function as our advertising.”
Form partnerships with other charities.
“We’re being forced to partner with other groups to become more sustainable in the current environment,” says Sheri Betts, acting executive director of Mission of Love Charities, a Capitol Heights health and human-services group. She says that government cuts make it essential for groups to find new ways to reduce the cost of fundraising and operations.
Don’t forget about dedicated churchgoers.
UCAP is also making it known that it is not ready to concede the county’s charitable dollars to its pews and steeples. About 60 churches send volunteers to cook for women staying in UCAP shelters.
“We’ve begun to get those volunteers’ names and addresses, as well as those of their pastors’,” says Chad Williams, chief operating officer at UCAP. “We’re starting to solicit them directly and get them to support us, too.”
