Tight purse strings leave Rockingham organizations short on funding

By Heather Smith

Published: June 7, 2008

Money is tight for everyone these days, including charity and civic organizations that depend on private donations. In Rockingham County, campaigns seek money to build an animal shelter, a new library for the western side of the county and to pay for year-round outreach and human services.

Ginger Waynick, county public information officer, said a fundraising campaign for a sculpture and other artwork at the new justice center has been successful through the sale of brick pavers.
“We are selling them for $100, $200 and $500,” Waynick said. “So far, we’ve raised just at $30,000 of a $60,000 goal. We want to start the push to the end goal starting next month and into September.”
“Basically, the way we’ve pitched it to people is that we keep courthouses for 100 years or more. If they buy a paver with their name on it, it will serve as a snapshot of what was going on, who was active and contributing in Rockingham County in 2008,” Waynick said.

Instead of relying on large donations from individuals and corporations, Waynick said, the success has been based on the money being collected by groups to buy a small piece of immortality. Waynick said employees from most schools in Rockingham County bought a paver, and so have civic groups, churches and anyone wishing to leave a small mark on history.

“I’ve had some people come in here and pay with about seven checks, all from a bunch of people who got together and raised money for it,” Waynick said.

The county’s next fundraising project is additional construction money for an animal shelter. Waynick said the shelter advisory committee has met for several months and will soon plan the start of a campaign to raise about half the money needed to build a modern shelter. Following the success of the paver campaign, Waynick said, the idea will probably be used again for the shelter, along with dog shows, mailings and special events.

In August 2005, Rockingham Community College announced plans for a community civic center to be built on N.C. 87 in Wentworth. Accompanying RCC’s announcements that the center would include an auditorium, classrooms and art gallery was the start of a fundraising campaign to cover construction costs.

Donations came from all parts of the county. RCC received millions in donations, including $3.5 million from the McMichael family, prompting planners to dub the building the McMichael Civic Center. But by 2007, large donations trailed off as the original cost estimate for the building began to rise. In June 2006, the cost was estimated at $10 million. In October 2007, RCC President Robert Keys presented an update on civic center progress to the Rockingham County Board of Commissioners, and he said the cost was now estimated at $12.5 million.

Richard Powell became the civic center’s campaign director in February. He said he did not know the reasons that large gifts were not as frequent in the past two years, but since his appointment he has aggressively sought the support of area businesses.

“I don’t know why the campaign was not as aggressive in 2007, but we’re fully focused now, and following up with people,” Powell said. “Part of my efforts is to make the appropriate calls and contacts.”
Asking for help to build a civic center is different than other fundraising efforts, Powell explained. Time and communication are needed to show donors the value of such a community project.
“We are still in the process of moving forward with the campaign, and, as you can imagine, sharing the story of the civic center’s impact on the community with business leaders,” Powell said. “Sometimes it’s a slow process.”

The campaign has targeted only large donors thus far but soon will ask help from everyone in the county. “Later on as we go forward, we will open to the general public,” Powell said. “Right now, from a fundraising standpoint, it makes more sense to be talking to corporations and individuals in order to offer them all the advantage of their generous support.”

The Rockingham library system has a proposed site — on land donated by Dalton McMichael — for a combined facility serving Madison and Mayodan, and the board of trustees is tasked with helping raise money to build the facility. The libraries that serve the towns are undersized and operate on a rotating schedule during the week.

Original estimates for the project were about $2 million; the first estimate presented by selected architectural firm LS3P came to $3.5 million for a nearly 15,000-square-foot library building.
Figures presented at a May 5 meeting of the committee were based on a smaller 12,500-square-foot building costing about $2.5 million.

A meeting of the Library Building Oversight Committee has been scheduled for June 17 at 6:30 p.m. in Wentworth to discuss plans and fundraising for the proposed western Rockingham library.

Times have been hard for even the most established charity organizations. Richard Hurley is executive director of the United Way of Rockingham County. Fundraising amounts have been lower for the past several years, Hurley said, prompting the United Way to lower its annual goal to under a million dollars.

“Actually, we lowered the goal because of the economy,” Hurley said. “Back in 1996, a lot of people were saying they weren’t working but maybe half time or not at all. Most of our donations come from collections taken from the workplace. With the economy doing badly and the price of gas going up, people have had less money to give.”

Donations from campaigns organized by teachers, nurses and other types of employees flowed in ever slower. With fewer contributions, the United Way’s ability to fund the 22 county charity organizations was limited.

“Those United Way dollars are made available to buy medication for people in the last days of their life who don’t otherwise qualify for Medicaid,” Hurley said.

Ironically, the population hit hardest by the bad economy is the same who need those services. Utility assistance, medical care, food and clothing distribution and other services have seen a spike in demand simultaneous with a dip in operating costs.

“Obviously, if we don’t have as many dollars to provide, we can’t provide as much support for those services,” he said.

They have been fortunate in Rockingham County, Hurley said, that the organization has only had to cut funding by 8 percent to its chosen agencies locally, but it may continue to shrink if the economy does not improve.

Hurley said he is no expert on what makes fundraising campaigns more or less successful. But he has a good understanding why donors give money. It is to improve lives, not just to be listed as a generous contributor. Showing donors how they have helped others speaks clearer than any marketing campaign.

“It’s not concrete till you let people see it, hear it, touch it,” Hurley said. “The people who contribute want to know someone’s being helped. We can show them numbers, and numbers are important, but seeing how peoples’ lives have been changed is much more powerful.”

Staff writer Heather J. Smith can be reached at or 623-2155, ext. 15.