The Salvation Army launches its signature holiday Red Kettle Campaign on Monday, months ahead of its usual start date, around Thanksgiving. That’s due in part to the increased need that the charity has seen since the pandemic began. What’s more, social-distancing measures are keeping people at home, shuttering Salvation Army stores and limiting foot traffic past its red kettles.
The charity, the largest nonprofit social-service provider in the country, hopes a combination of early action and increased online giving will help it meet an expected 155 percent spike in demand for its services this holiday season.
“We are seeing what can best be described as a tsunami of human need when we combine Covid-19 with the demands of Hurricane Laura, the fires in the West, the economic dislocation that people have experienced,” said Kenneth Hodder, national commander of the Salvation Army.
The charity expects to be in front of fewer shoppers and commuters this year and hopes it can reach that audience online. It’s planned email appeals and social-media ads with a particular focus on signing donors up to give $25 monthly gifts.
Already, more donors this year have made online contributions to support the group’s work to address the public health emergency and natural disasters. To date, they have contributed more than $36 million online since March 1. That’s a 238 percent increase in digital contributions over the same period in 2019.
“If people are spending more of their day online, they’re not going out as much — the need does not change and we have to reach them,” Hodder said.
The stakes are high this year. Last year, donors contributed $126.1 million to the Red Kettle Campaign. The charity estimates that contributions could fall by 50 percent if online donors don’t make up for gifts lost to decreased foot traffic and store closures.
“That would leave us totally unprepared for the need we’re going to face,” Hodder said. This holiday season, the charity expects the number of people seeking its services to grow by 4 million.
Beginning Monday, pedestrians will see masked Salvation Army bell ringers keeping a safe distance from their red kettles and collecting donations well ahead of the holiday season. The charity is again using its Kettle Pay program, which allows donors to make mobile donations through a QR code.
Hodder hopes the early presence of red kettles won’t confuse donors who associate bell ringers with holiday shopping.
“One of the challenges is helping people to see that the need that that kettle meets is a need we have now and that it is greater than ever before,” Hodder said. A robust advertising campaign — including billboards and television ads — will help spread the word about the need for early gifts.
“It is a matter of saving that Christmas spirit, making sure that people recognize that it’s needed now,” Hodder said. “We need an understanding of the needs that our neighbors have.”
