Charities who are struggling to meet their holiday fundraising goals believe the economy is one reason Albertans are donating less.

Salvation Army in the Edmonton region is on track with its seasonal fundraising, having reached about 70 per cent of its $550,000 Christmas Kettle campaign.

“Of course, this weekend coming up is the big one for us and we need to stay on track over the weekend, and we should make our goal,” said Commissioner Susan McMillan, territorial commander for Salvation Army Canada and Bermuda.

But while one charity is averaging par for the course, others are falling behind.

After sounding the alarm about having collected less than half of its holiday goal, the Edmonton Food Bank saw a slight uptick in donations.

The bank serves between 20,000 and 25,000 patrons monthly.

It just surpassed 50 per cent of its goal of 350,000 kilograms of food and $1.8 million in monetary contributions.

According to the bank’s director, the economy may be to blame for fewer donations.  

“The whole year has been a little bit of a struggle for us to make campaigns,” Marjorie Bencz. “We’re hearing people say, ‘We really want to support you, we just can’t the same way we have in the past.’”

“Alberta is struggling… So that does have an impact on our community and people’s ability to support charitable causes.”

The charities CTV News spoke with said individuals and corporations are still contributing, but in smaller amounts.

The Christmas Bureau of Edmonton has had a similar experience.

“We’ve definitely had an increase in the number of people asking for support this year,” said Darlene Kowalchuk, the bureau’s executive director. “Definitely, the economic downturn has had an impact on that.”

McMillan added: “We understand that these are difficult times, especially here in Alberta, but that only means that we have more people that we need to serve as well.”  

Information on how to help

  • the Edmonton Food Bank can be found online, while donations can be made at its warehouse and fire halls throughout the city, as well as at Candy Cane Lane and through Can Man Dan;
  • the Christmas Bureau of Edmonton can be found on its website;
  • the Salvation Army and its Fill the Kettle Campaign can be found online.

With files from Dan Grummett