A last-minute push for donations paid off big-time for the Salvation Army in Chatham-Kent.
With less than two weeks left in the group's Christmas Campaign, they were facing a significant fundraising shortfall, but managed to turn that around with some last-minute donations to reach their annual fundraising goal.
Officials said as of January 2, they had just narrowly beat their $500,000 goal by taking in $500,638.41.
"We were a little concerned over Christmas, but thanks to the generosity of the people in Chatham-Kent, we were able to attain our goal," said Salvation Army Major Larry Bridger. "Our demands were up almost 25 per cent from the previous year when it came to families looking for assistance... but we were able to help everyone and hopefully they all enjoyed their Christmas."
There were some mixed results with the donation methods this time around with hand-delivered, mailed-in, and online donations down about $60,000 compared to the 2022 campaign.
At the same time, the donations that the group received from its Red Kettles were up about $17,000 compared to the previous year -- those donations include money from TipTap, cash, and cheques.
Overall, the annual campaign raised about $43,300 less than it did in 2022.
