City saw need grow, and rose up to meet it

Published Dec. 25, 2009 at 8:05 a.m.
Double-digit unemployment, 10,000 foreclosures in the first 10 months, the worst recession in a generation, and the loss of a coveted bank.

But how did Charlotte-area residents react?

The Foundation for the Carolinas received $12million more in financial commitments than last year. The Urban Ministry Center's Moore Place project has raised nearly all its $10 million cost in a matter of months. And the financially beleaguered Charlotte Symphony reached its $1.77 million year-end goal due almost entirely to donations large and small.

Experts from around the country say there's anecdotal evidence that Charlotte's nonprofit initiatives are doing better than those in many big cities, and they give some credit to the big foundations based in the community.

The Duke Energy Foundation, Bank of America Foundation, Wachovia-Wells Fargo Foundation, Leon Levine Foundation, C.D. Spangler Foundation, among others, all came up with millions to meet community needs.

But even as big-dollar donations made headlines, hundreds of smaller causes flourished because people of lesser means gave time and money.

Last week, for example, a Charlotte man walked in unannounced to Hope Haven with four new men's coats, after reading that the center needed winter clothing for recovering addicts.

Tonight, 500 luminarias will line the curbs of a Matthews neighborhood because 8-year-old Alyssa Verruto sold them to raise money to buy toys for an orphanage.

And this morning, the Salvation Army will provide Christmas gifts to 13,500 children, because of people like City Clerk Stephanie Kelly and her staff, who agreed to adopt 50 needy kids but ended up helping 80.

Granted, not every project was a success.

United Way's annual campaign came up $14million short last year, and this year's effort had to be extended for the agency to get closer to its goal. Those problems were blamed in part on public ire over high-dollar benefits given to the agency's CEO, who has since been fired.

But then came the Critical Need Response Fund, offering millions in emergency cash to feed, clothe and shelter the poor, and the Community Catalyst Fund, which promises millions more to help struggling charities partner or merge in order to survive.

A third initiative, Mission Possible, consisted of media partners who convened residents to create solutions to the nonprofit financial crisis. In the process, it raised hundreds of thousands for charity.

Michael Marsicano, CEO of Foundation for the Carolinas, says such initiatives hint of a city with a generous heart.

Specifically, he cites the Critical Need Response Fund, started last year with a $1million gift from the Levine Foundation. It ultimately raised $2.7million.

"It is a perfect example of what happens when people of significant means give big gifts, and people of modest means give small gifts," Marsicano says. "They are all pulling together, pooling their resources for a common purpose.

"And I love that, because it defines a community."

The Foundation for the Carolinas recently agreed to manage a new critical needs fund, after receiving a string of calls from people who gave last year and wanted to give again. Like last year, the Levines donated the first $1million.

"I think people in the community are more attuned to human need, because of the recession," says Dale Mullennix, of the Urban Ministry Center.

"We get gifts of every imaginable size, from the $3million given by Wachovia-Wells Fargo to $13 from two little girls who collected it knocking on doors in their neighborhood. There's no comparison between those two numbers, but the value of the sacrifice, the intent, was the same."

Gary Collins, 49, of Waxhaw exemplifies Mullennix's theme.

A husband and father of two, Collins left his job this summer in anticipation of being laid off, and gambled on starting a business. When things went better than expected, he agreed to buy a few dozen turkeys for the poor at Thanksgiving.

But the more calls he made, the more need he found.

A few dozen turkeys became 100, then 200, then 400, and finally 600. Collins ended up renting a 30-foot truck, which he and his family used to deliver 10,000 pounds of turkey to sites like west Charlotte's New Outreach Christian Center.

"It had a big impact on my boys, who stood there on the back of that van, handing out turkeys to a line of the young and old, entire families and people in wheelchairs," says Collins.

"When you get my age, you wake up one day appreciating what you have, and realize you have to start giving back."

Brenda Stevenson, director of the New Outreach Christian Center, says those turkeys helped feed 5,000 during Thanksgiving week.

Other donors brought turkeys, too, and she heard a singular theme from them that may explain why the recession has made this a city of givers.

"People said they wanted to share what they had," she says, "because it could easily be them in line, looking for help."

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