Giving for All Seasons : Contributions are down everywhere as misery becomes more widespread

This may be the proverbial season for giving, but Southern Californians have not kept up with their proverbial level of charity.

Giving is down almost everywhere, according to the current issue of the NonProfit Times, a respected trade publication. What timing! People are hurting in poor communities, and that pain is spreading to middle-class and affluent areas. Everywhere you turn there is bad news. General Motors and IBM are eliminating tens of thousands of jobs. The pending merger of Bank of America and Security Pacific threatens to blanket the region with pink slips. Retailing, aerospace and other businesses--big and small--are also eliminating jobs.

Who doesn’t know somebody who has lost a job this year? Who isn’t beginning to worry that they could be next in the unemployment line, or worse, the welfare line?

Those fears may never materialize, but they prompt deep economic insecurity. Is that inhibiting giving? Are people not contributing because they fear they could be the next to lose a job?

The United Way of Greater Los Angeles, for example, depends primarily on individual payroll deductions. So when the jobs go, so does the giving. The philanthropy fell $12 million short of its campaign goal this year. A new president, Herbert L. Carter, was recently selected to head the charity. Carter, a high-ranking California State University administrator, is no stranger to philanthropy. But he takes charge during a grim time of recession that means more Californians must make do with less.

Hard times are the very times when even a small contribution can be crucial to those in need. A dollar or a can of food would make a difference at the crowded Salvation Army feeding programs and at other charities. Household discards from closets, garages and storerooms would allow Goodwill to hire disabled people and “socially disadvantaged” workers who in many cases have not finished even grade school.

The pain isn’t seasonal; thus the giving should be year-round. Most economic forecasts for 1992 are chilly indeed. Those who are not in great need simply must help those we are. It is a moral imperative for all of us.