With just a week left to go, the Red Kettle campaign for the Bradford Salvation Army is feeling the pinch of online shopping and a cashless society.
Capt. David Means said on Wednesday that the campaign is only halfway to its goal.
“From what I understand, that is a trend across Western Pennsylvania,” Means said. “A lot of Salvation Armies are behind on their kettle efforts.”
The Salvation Army’s goal is $40,000 this year, with the current donations totaling just under $20,000. Means noted that, while the last week before Christmas is typically the week where they receive the most donations, the winter weather predicted for the days leading up to Christmas may interfere.
“With winter weather coming, we aren’t sure the impact that will have on our donations,” he said.
The Salvation Army adopted new technology this year that allows for those who don’t typically carry cash to contribute, but the reception from the public hasn’t been as expected.
“We do have the new opportunity to pay with your phone, but from what I understand, a lot of people haven’t taken advantage of that opportunity,” Means said. “People are in the habit of being about the dollars and coins, putting them in the kettle.”
When people aren’t carrying cash, they aren’t giving donations.
“People are still a little leery about using their phones to make donations. Millennials are the most comfortable with it, because everything is done that way,” Means said. “We have a lot of older donors who are more comfortable doing it the traditional way.”
Means has a couple of theories as to why donations are not comparing to those of previous years.
“With Thanksgiving a little late, we got a late start, and that has been a challenge. I have talked to a few store owners, and they also say sales are down a little. It seems to me, with more people buying online there are less shoppers out and less people to put money in the kettle. But, I have no hard data on that,” he explained.
Meanwhile, the hope remains alive that donors will take advantage of the new pay by phone technology or carry a bit of extra cash when shopping at TOPS Markets, Big Lots, Save-a-lot or Walmart and help the Red Kettle campaign meet this year’s goal.
