Charities can't keep up with deepening poverty; Need felt in white-collar workforce

[DeepModem Mom]

LAT: Charities can't keep up with deepening poverty
Need is being felt in the white-collar workforce, with the souring economy upending professionals who were once considered reliable donors to charities.
By Duke Helfand
November 27, 2008

....Charities across the country are facing...stress this year as their busiest season approaches. Aid organizations are hobbled by dwindling resources and soaring demands for food, clothing, money and other necessities.

And it's not only the desperately poor who are banging on their doors.

The web of poverty is expanding into the white-collar workforce, with the souring economy upending professionals who were once considered reliable contributors. The director of one Phoenix charity, for instance, says that some of his donors have become his clients.

Charity administrators, pastors and rabbis are forecasting a bleak holiday season and an even more troubling year ahead, given government cutbacks and contributors tightening their belts in response to the deteriorating economy.

The crisis occurs at an alarming time: Such philanthropic groups typically collect most of their revenue at the end of the year, when donors open their wallets to qualify for tax write-offs. As resources vanish, however, the threads of the nation's extensive social safety nets are fraying, leaving single mothers, elderly shut-ins and others ever more vulnerable.

"The number of people and families who are forced to seek help is going to continue to grow exponentially in the next year," said Nancy Volpert, director of public policy at Jewish Family Service of Los Angeles. "The safety net is being stretched very thin."

Already, increasing numbers of people who were once prosperous are having to ask for help, according to a variety of accounts....

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-charity27-2008nov27,0,6635392,full.story

[madrchsod]

1. the rersale shops around here have a better selection

of higher end clothing than i have seen in years ...this is probably going to hurt the charity shops because in good times they receive these kinds of goods. when things were hopping my local charity shop was bargain heaven and within the the last two months the donations have dropped.