Charities Enter Start of Holiday Season Sound but Wary : Philanthropy: Big organizations have resources to tap new donors, but some smaller agencies are barely hanging on.

From the biggest social-service network to the smallest soup kitchen, most groups in San Diego that depend on charitable contributions are healthy, but wary, as they enter the holiday season.

Despite the sputtering state economy, few of San Diego’s big charities are noticeably poorer this year.

Large, well established social service providers have exhibited enough staying power to tough out the times. United Way, the St. Vincent de Paul Village and the San Diego Food Bank all reported being just slightly under projected budget goals for the year, but they are within reach if donations during the next six weeks come on strong.

The food bank, which officially kicks off a Christmas drive Tuesday, has increased the number of donor agencies from last year, including the four major supermarkets serving the county.

Charities outside the human services, such as the San Diego Symphony, KPBS broadcasting and the Museum of Contemporary Art, also have remained steady by developing new donors to compensate for government funding cuts.

“The economy we’re experiencing has brought some surprises,” said Darline Ulrich, director of the Oceanside Community Action Corp., a conglomerate of seven social service programs in North County. “Some people are willing to dig deeper because they see so many others hurting.”

But the losers in the philanthropic bowl this year have been the smaller, less-organized, community-based social service providers--those without development officers and grant writers employed by their bigger, more centralized charity siblings.

“The agencies living day to day on a thin cushion are the ones who are feeling the impact now,” Ulrich said.

As California’s economy continues to slide, and the ranks of the unemployed grow, the need for social services has also spiraled. Charity groups serving the homeless are wondering how long they can endure contributor holding patterns and are curtailing comprehensive services, such as job placement, in order to expand basic survival programs.

“Less government money, more clients, that’s what we are seeing,” Ulrich said.

OCAC receives 75% of its funding from the government, and some of the corporation’s programs suffered from state budget cuts. But, during the last year, OCAC saw a commensurate rise in small, private donations and volunteer help.

“We saw a whole different set of donors come out,” Ulrich said. “People are investing more of themselves, more of their time, being more creative. It’s not just a check this time.”

Ulrich gave as an example a couple who arrived recently from Texas. They prepared $5 bags of groceries and solicited shoppers outside a major supermarket, asking them to donate to the food bank. Five dollars went to the market to pay for the groceries, which in turn went to the food bank.

The homeless shelters run by St. Vincent de Paul also saw the rise in newly down and out.

“We’ve got more customers this year. Problem is, ours don’t pay,” said Father Joe Carroll, the group’s president.

St. Vincent de Paul feeds an average of 1,200 people each day and provides lodging and medical service for 500, Carroll said. This year, during the winter months, another 300 beds are being added and a new shelter in Ramona was opened to accommodate 150 for meals, 50 for lodging, he said.

“We aren’t going broke and we don’t expect to see our programs get crippled,” Carroll said. “From my gut feeling, I’d say, we’re going to hold our own. But we’re all nervous. I’ll be happy to make it to where we just survive.”

Carroll said the St. Vincent de Paul has raised $2.1 million so far in 1991 and is looking to raise $1.5 million more by year’s end.

The United Way in San Diego, which helps support about 300 of San Diego’s 2,000 nonprofit groups, concludes its yearly fund-raising drive Dec. 11. The outcome will probably top the 1990 mark of $29.5 million, but will probably fall about $1 million short of this year’s $32-million goal, said Chief Operating Officer Terry Riggins.

“What we are finding is that people are feeling very charitable,” Riggins said. “That is, at least the people at companies that are still in business.”

Because of the slowdown in real estate development, and corporate downsizing and mergers, the county’s work force shrank by about 10,000 last year, Riggins said. United Way, which receives donations largely from payroll deductions at sponsoring companies, has been drawing from a smaller but more generous employee pool, he said.

Cultural and educational charities say they are faring well.

The San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art has developed outreach projects to help replace school art programs decimated by state cuts. With the focus on education, individual contributors have been receptive, said Anne Farrell, the museum’s development director.

Membership is 15% up from last year’s pace and contributions are expected to meet the $1.1 million goal, Farrell said.

At KPBS, officials for the public broadcasting company predicted a bumper year in contributions.

“We are expecting to do better than we ever have,” said Pat Finn, the KPBS director of promotion and advertising. “This is the worst economic period I can remember in 17 years of public broadcasting, and I still don’t think we’re worried. Traditionally, public broadcasting has fared pretty well during hard times.”

This year the KPBS goal is to reach $4.17 million in membership dues and contributions. During a two-week pledge drive in December, the company hopes to add 4,200 new recruits to its 70,000 membership.

Several of the county’s major charity supporters said donations have held steady from last year.

HomeFed Bank officials said the bank’s dismal performance this year did not affect contributions, which are administered through a foundation. Like last year, about $500,000 went to various groups, ranging from a $300 donation to a little league baseball team to an $11,000, five-year repeating grant to the Interfaith Shelter Network, said Sheree Zizzi, a spokeswoman for the bank.

San Diego Gas & Electric adheres to the utility industry standard in its contributions. At slightly less than 1% of corporate earnings, SDG&E; contributed $1.6 million to charity this year, said Becky Obayashi, corporate contributions administrator.

Employee associations at SDG&E; and other companies in the county have organized separate contribution efforts to supplement corporate donations, Obayashi said.

The hard economic times have raised people’s awareness of the poor, said Sara Matta, director of Info Line of San Diego County, a United Way-sponsored referral service.

“I think the economic conditions bring about a double-edged sword,” Matta said. “Along with the problems are people who are going to identify more closely with those going hungry. Maybe they have relatives or neighbors who have lost jobs. It’s closer to home now, and it makes everyone a little more sensitive to those in need.”

In some cases, funding hinges on luck. And for Gloria and M.C. Billings, a retired couple who run a meal program in Vista called Project Manna, luck has been bad.

Since 1979, Project Manna has depended on word of mouth to attract supporters, Gloria Billings said. Because of the economy, she said, three long-time contributors stopped sending checks, which left a large hole in Manna’s budget.

Those former supporters and just a few who reduced pledges have placed Manna’s fiscal health in jeopardy, Billings said. When the donor pool is small to begin with, any absence becomes profound, she said.

“We’ve always been able to get by,” Billings said. “We do what we can with the small donations. But this year has been especially brutal.”

The Billingses devoted $21,000 of their own pensions to help support their meal program for homeless and low-income families in northeast San Diego County. The program feeds about 50 people each day, Gloria Billings said.

Manna now refers families to larger meal programs in North County.

In listings countywide, the number of agencies offering holiday assistance dropped from 94 last year to 70, said Info Line’s Matta. And many shelters that do not have room to take in newcomers are offering services and meals only to current clients.

On Nov. 21, Info Line exhausted its list of agencies with holiday baskets and turned away 157 callers, Matta said.

“All we could tell them was we were sorry,” Matta said.

This holiday season, traditionally the time of year when charitable contributions to homeless centers are greatest, the competition has stepped up among charities. More groups see themselves as susceptible to the weaknesses of the economy and look to holiday largess to build cash reserves that will tide them over for the year.

At all levels, anxiety over where next year’s funding will come from has surfaced. Even among the agencies holding their own, many wonder if a collapse in contributions looms in the future.

“We’ve been lucky, but we all should be trying to prepare for what’s to come,” Matta said. “Nothing is predictable in this day and age.”