More people shopping online or not carrying cash, cuts into donations

Army gives 85 cents of every $1 collected to needy people, causes

Salvation Army helps 30 million each year

This December, however, the Salvation Army is ringing the alarm bell. Its It's strategy of standing outside of malls and supermarkets asking for donations isn't working as well.

The New Jersey division of the Salvation Army is worried that online shopping is taking a toll on donations. Fewer shoppers visiting vising stores is leaving the kettles a bit empty.

“With the rise of online shopping during the holiday season, coupled with the fact that many people do not carry cash anymore, the Salvation Army in New Jersey is challenged to raise money through their traditional red kettles,” says Alexandria Hammond, community relations manager. Alexandria Hammond.

Initially started to fund a Christmas dinner for the poor in San Francisco in 1865, the tradition of “bell ringers” calling for change has become the Christian group’s main fundraiser.

Eileen Scheibner and her daughter have spent a few hours at a time out in the cold ringing bells for the Salvation Army this year, and they plan to spend more time championing its causes. Scheibner says she knows what it's like to need help.

“They helped me out in 2011 when I had cancer,” says the retired nurse. The organization helped her with money when she couldn't afford her rent. “They supported me and my daughter during my cancer treatment,” she says. That is why the mother and daughter stand in front of stores greeting strangers and trying to appeal to their Christmas spirit.

“I love ringing the bells and promoting the good works of the Salvation Army,” Scheibner says.

The money collected through the iconic campaign still feeds those in need. It also provides assistance to victims of disasters and pays for programs for people who are poor, disabled, elderly, ill or and homeless.

The Salvation Army helps 30 million Americans annually, giving 82 cents of every dollar it collects to the causes.

Maj. Ivan Rock, state commander of the Salvation Army in New Jersey, says the tradition of storefront collection is feeling the effects of time. Contributions, he says, are down 10 percent from last year so far.

"Society is changing. What we have found is, fewer people are carrying cash and more people are shopping online," he says. "We are feeling the impact of that."

Rock says bell ringers (their term for the volunteers) across the state are reporting a decline in contributions.

“In 2011, the campaign raised $2.2 million,” Rock says. “We have seen the decline slowly over the past number of years to $1.9 million.”

Last year’s $1.9 million went to helping more than 700,000 New Jerseyans. The numbers still seems impressive, but going deeper, Rock says, reveals reasons to worry.

"When you think about it, the kettle campaign is nickels and dimes that add up,” Rock says. “A decline of that magnitude makes it more difficult for us to provide the services we provide.”

He says he sees more people are in need this year and expects still more in the coming year.

“Many of the people coming to us for Thanksgiving help and Christmas help have been the working poor,” Rock says. “We have seen a large growth in that. In order to meet that growing need, we have actually set our goal this year a bit higher than last year. But we are struggling.”

Lt. Col. Ron Busroe is the national spokesman for the organization, and he says the downward trend for contributions is not a national trend. In fact, Busroe says last year was the best year the Salvation Army has ever had with Christmas kettles. Nationally, the program collected $150 million. The downward trend has been tracked specifically to the Northeast. Neither state nor national Salvation Army officials offer have a reason for the trend, but they say they are tracking it.

In 2011, $30 million was collected in Christmas kettles across the Northeast. In 2012, $29 million was collected; in 2013, $26 million; in 2014, $28.7 million. And in 2015, when collections in the rest of the country were up, collections in the Northeast were down 1 percent at $28.4 million, according to Busroe.

“There are a number of trends against the kettle campaign,” Busroe says. “We are becoming a cashless society, and retail traffic has shown steady decline over the last four or five years.”

So the Salvation Army is trying to roll with the times. It has just launched a new mobile campaign where people can donate by texting NJkettle to 41444. There are other sources of revenue as well, including mailed-in donations. But the kettles are most visible, when it comes to the group’s identity.

“The kettle campaign is our largest campaign of the year and therefore most important,” Rock says. “It is a time when people are thinking about the Salvation Army and the services we provide. The kettle on the corner is a fixture at Christmastime. I don't envision a day when the Salvation Army would get rid of our kettles. They are too important to who we are.“

Ezekiel Elliott's Salvation Army celebration should be hailed

Last Sunday, the red kettles and the Salvation Army got a bit of a boost when Dallas Cowboys running back Ezekiel Elliott jumped into a big Salvation Army red kettle after scoring a touchdown against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. The Salvation Army said the publicity helped boost donations, and in the 12 hours after Elliott's jump, the organization collected $182,000 in online donations, Busroe says.

Email: myers@northjersey.com