Shepherds of Good Hope has put a crisis team in place as the postal strike cuts it off from donors who often contribute at this time of year.
“We are in a crisis situation,” Shepherds of Good Hope Foundation CEO David Gourlay told OBJ. “We are having to do everything we can to raise the kind of money we need to ensure that our operations continue and thrive in meeting the demand of trauma and homelessness.”
Shepherds provides services to people experiencing homelessness in Ottawa. Overall, Gourlay said the charity has had a successful year when it comes to community support and fundraising campaigns.
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But the holidays are typically the organization’s most important time, with funds raised accounting for about one-quarter of its annual budget. This year, those efforts have been stymied by the ongoing Canada Post strike.
“Every holiday season we have a direct mail campaign, where we’re snail-mailing our donor base stories of meaning and purpose,” said Gourlay. “We profile our residents, our frontline workers, and our volunteers. We do this seven times a year, but Christmas is our really big campaign.”
The charity sends nearly 12,000 pieces of mail during the campaign and receives a significant portion of donations through cheques that are mailed in.
Now, unable to send out those materials, Gourlay said the organization has been largely cut off from its most generous donor base.
“One of our largest donor segments is seniors and they’re not necessarily online, donating like the younger generations,” he said. “Seniors aren’t doing that. They love to take the time to read the pieces and send us messages of support for the residents in our supportive housing, people living in our shelter, people who are living on the street. They’re very warm and affectionate and they’ll say, ‘We’re thinking of you this holiday season.’ And of course they’ll make a financial contribution.”
According to Gourlay, the smaller donations of $10 or $20 that come in at this time of year add up quickly. Without those, he said Shepherds could be in for a tough start to the new year.
While it’s too early to know exactly how much the shortfall will be, Gourlay said the organization expects it could impact services.
“Our fundraising directly supports Shepherds’ operations,” he said. “Up to 13 per cent of day-to-day operations are funded by donors, so it doesn’t take long to put together that, as a result of this situation, we’ll have to make some very difficult choices around programs and services.”
Crisis team in place to combat challenges
With only a few weeks left in the holiday season to try to make up for the shortfall, Gourlay said Shepherds has put together a crisis team of staff and volunteers.
“We have our executive and senior leadership teams, our board of directors, and a huge crew of volunteers who are going to start making phone calls directly to donors,” he said. “We are offering donors the opportunity for us to come to their house and pick up a donation, which we’re going to run all through December and January. We are going to be making several thousand calls over the next several weeks.”
For those who usually receive this year’s campaign material through email, the team will also be offering to drop it off directly at their house.
The goal is to reach as many individual and business donors as possible.
“These programs and services are clothing, housing and food,” Gourlay said. “We’re an essential service. We have to stay open. We have to feed people. We have to house people. We have to give them the basics. That doesn’t stop because of the postal strike.”
The organization is also running a corporate campaign called 12 Days, where business leaders volunteer at Shepherds’ soup kitchen to learn more about being on the frontlines.
Gourlay said there’s often a stigma around homelessness that can make it difficult to draw new donors to the cause.
“Not everybody understands homelessness,” he said. “You and I are probably not thinking, in our future, that we’re going to need Shepherds of Good Hope, versus CHEO or The Ottawa Hospital. Those are services you can envision using, so maybe you’ll support them. So it’s so important for charities to have every access point available to us to engage people, to raise money, so that we can provide the basic services we are accustomed to delivering.”
On Wednesday, Canada Post said the union’s new demands are unaffordable and unsustainable, claiming they would cost more than $3 billion over four years at a time when the postal service is struggling financially.
The statement came after Canada Post said Monday that the union’s latest proposals widen the gap between the two parties and that, in some cases, the union has increased its demands.
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers pushed back on Canada Post’s criticism in a bulletin to members Tuesday evening, giving a list of proposals it said are meant to bring the two parties closer together.
The union said its latest proposals included wage increases lower than previously demanded, as well as a cost-of-living allowance and better job security.
With files from The Canadian Press
