Strikes and spare change

Opinion

It all feels a little too familiar, doesn’t it?

Maybe you have a long-awaited purchase stuck in limbo. Or a care package to a loved one trapped in a warehouse. Or your passport, finally about to be renewed before your first vacation in how many years?

This is what charities want you to know. For charities, a postal strike is more than an inconvenience. It rings alarm bells. It marks the beginning of uncertainty. Yes, your tax receipts are caught up in the mail, but so is your donation to us. And when (or if) the strike ever ceases, there is a risk it won’t reach us at all.

Fundraisers are used to “the long game.”

We know the ins and outs of what our charities need, and we work tirelessly to bring that information to you — the people who care about our success the most. While the world is overwhelmingly and rapidly moving to digital, one of our most successful forms of fundraising remains the carefully crafted and designed letter that arrives in your mailbox.

Weeks of work go into considering how that piece of correspondence will stand out amongst your flyers and junk mail. We carefully consider what information will mean the most to you and best express how dire our situations are without scaring you away. And we know a piece of mail is much harder to delete than an email.

When a postal strike occurs, the long game becomes unpredictable. Are we into second overtime? Or has the game been lost?

You’ll soon be hearing from your favourite charities about how desperate they are for your donation, and by now, you may think this is just another fundraising tactic to guilt you into giving. I’m sure you’ve already received several panicked emails from charities you support (us included). The reality is that the mail strike is a reflection of desperate times for Canada Post, for charities and for us all.

At the Winnipeg Humane Society, mailed donations account for 25 per cent of our annual revenue. During last year’s postal strike, we lost 30 per cent of our expected donations which were not recovered by the extension in the tax-receipt deadline. While the total dollar amount of donations has been reported as rising across Canada, these numbers also reflect a shrinking pool of donors.

As Canada’s most reliable supporters age, there are fewer new donors taking up the mantle of philanthropy. This is no surprise, as people continue to spend more on the rising cost of groceries, childcare, rent and basic survival — philanthropy simply cannot be top of mind.

Charities are doing their best to reach you at home. Every fundraiser has their own version of a story that finds them spending many late nights writing notes or preparing deliveries to bring to you, or thinking of the best way to go the extra mile. We’re thinking of the next snappy tagline to get you to open that email. (But amongst all the noise? We know it won’t).

Maybe during last year’s postal strike, you were the lucky recipient of an appeal in your mailbox, perhaps with a cookie, a card, or a small token of appreciation. These are not happy accidents; they are the direct result of a fundraiser showing you how much your help is appreciated, time and time again.

So, what does this mean for you? Frankly, the charities you support need you now. They need to be able to budget for tomorrow to keep on their lights and pay their staff. We often say every gift counts, and this is truer now than ever.

Call your local charity, donate online or pop in to say hello — with or without a cheque! We’d love to hear from you.

And while I’m pining for my shoe order lost in the mail, I know they’ll make their way to me eventually.

But as a fundraiser hoping for your donation? I’m not so sure.

Taylor Goodson (she/her) is the manager of annual giving at the Winnipeg Humane Society. She has 10 years of experience working with and for non-profits, formerly at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) — Qaumajuq, and serves on the board of GroundSwell.