How Can People Be More Enticed to Give to Social Services?

Featured in April 2010 on Los Angeles Magazine's Web site, in response to a printed article, What Gives?

Antonia Hernández
President and CEO, California Community Foundation (CCF) 

If Los Angeles were judged solely on how we as a community have responded to the increasing needs of the most vulnerable people in our midst, there’s no question that Angelenos are one of the most generous in the country. In fact, last year alone our donors contributed $176 million to the foundation. We raised nearly $300,000 to help about 4,000 youth from low-income families attend summer camp, and donors also gave an additional $300,000 to help people in a crisis.

Even as Angelenos have been overwhelmingly responsive to the needs of the community, much work remains and we cannot lose sight of the scope of the problem we’re facing. For the 1.5 million people living below the federal poverty line in L.A. County, not having food to eat, having a roof over their heads, and getting good health care and quality schools is getting more challenging by the minute.

On any given day, at least 43,000 homeless people roam the streets of L.A. It only takes a job loss, a medical emergency, or a foreclosed home to drive families to get social services—many of them for the first time in their lives. For these new homeless, the reality of losing everything has been a sobering and jarring spiral of descent.

As an institution whose mission is to serve L.A., the California Community Foundation in 2009 granted nearly $46 million, or roughly a quarter of total grants, to nonprofits serving disadvantaged communities in L.A. County. This may sound like a lot, but it’s a drop in the bucket compared with the skyrocketing demand for services for those who need it most. Demand at food pantries, for instance, rose 34 percent in December 2009 over the previous year.

How are we trying to entice more donors to feel passionate enough about critical needs to direct more of their giving that way? By offering our generous family of supporters opportunities to partner with us in special projects that meet specific “basic needs” of a target population and by showing donors exactly how their charitable dollars are making a tangible difference in people’s lives. 

Two of these special projects focus on identified, urgent needs in health care and housing that will ultimately help improve the quality of life of a set number of families and individuals.

The first is a healthy homes program that teaches patients living in substandard conditions ways to prevent chronic illnesses like asthma, fungal infections, and rat bites through simple, cost-effective changes in their homes and surroundings. These illnesses cause missed work, frequent emergency room visits, and repeat doctors’ visits.

The second project prevents homelessness by providing short-term rental assistance to families struggling with unemployment and helping them get back on their feet. The families that participate in this project will also receive support services, including financial literacy workshops, ESL classes, resume-building workshops, and job-search counseling.

By connecting our donors to pressing community needs, we are helping them make informed choices at a time when many are reassessing their philanthropy to be more impactful as resources continue to shrink.

As I write this, another person in our community is forced to sleep in a box, tent or car, to line up for lunch at a local mission and face another day of despair. As generous as many Angelenos have been during this economic crisis, many families still need our help.

Focusing on housing, health, and hunger simply makes good philanthropic sense according to The Center for High Impact Philanthropy at the University of Pennsylvania, which said in a report that donors can get “a big bang for their philanthropic buck” in these areas.

We all need to do our part to help alleviate the suffering of those who lack the basic necessities that we take for granted every single day. Let’s all commit to doing more than we are, because families await our help. 

Read what other contributors had to say in the article.