Teaching to fish

In Saturday's Charleston Gazette, Alison Knezevich wrote about how charitable giving declines in lean economic times. There is no question that the country is experiencing lean economic times -- and will for some time. Unfortunately, West Virginia seems to suffer more proportionately than other parts of the country when these economic depressions hit.

And while all of us are feeling the pain in our pocketbooks when we pull up to the gas station, there is a segment of the population that suffers exponentially when tough times hit. Fortunately, for this segment there are social service agencies in the Kanawha Valley to help pick up the slack -- food banks, gently used clothing and furniture stores, and others. The YWCA of Charleston provides many services to the most vulnerable populations in our communities: elderly, disabled women who have suffered abuse, domestic violence victims and their children, children who come from families of low-socioeconomic status; and homeless women and families. When times are lean and these women have no one else to turn to, they come to the YWCA of Charleston for help.

The YWCA of Charleston's budget is largely supported by federal, state and local grants. When government priorities shift those funding sources are often threatened -- which in turn threatens the sustainability of the YWCA's critical social service programs. That's why the YWCA of Charleston is working to provide a revenue source -- a program endowment -- for our social service programs. We are currently raising monies to match a $2 million gift from Mr. Lyell B. Clay. This dollar-for-dollar match is being placed into an endowment and when times are lean -- and government spending is cut -- the YWCA of Charleston can fall back on this rainy day fund. This campaign also stems from the YWCA's philosophy of teaching a person to fish rather than feeding him a fish. We teach our clients self-sufficiency. It's all about learning the tools to achieve success. We believe in emulating this philosophy for our clients, which is why when we created our recent intiatives -- the Alicia McCormick Homes and the Shanklin Center -- we also built retail stores (gently used clothing and furniture stores) to offset the costs of those programs.

We're working in perhaps a challenging environment and time to raise these essential funds, but we believe we will succeed in our efforts to ultimately raise $4 million for our critical programs and meet our deadline of Dec. 31, 2009. We believe in our programs, our clients and in our ultimate success because our generous donors do give until it hurts. For all those who have and continue to financially support the YWCA of Charleston -- despite the state of the economy -- thank you.