An act of God shakes up fundraising at Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission

By Margaret Battistelli Gardner

MINING FOR GOLD

Here, in no specific order, are some recommendations from Craig Carpenter, director of development at Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission; and Herb Pfiffner, UGM executive director.

1. “My staff is the most important group of individuals I can have the pleasure of being around. Therefore I have to support them in just about everything and provide them with every tool that is available to them. I want them to feel empowered. There are so many decisions that can be made every day without running them up the chain of command and back down. These are good people who can be great when you give them the freedom and responsibility to do what they do.” — CC

2. “There are no obstacles. There are opportunities lying all around you. But the organization that says, ‘Yes, but …’ is facing a real obstacle.” — CC

3. “When you do your budget, be as realistic as you can be but as aggressive as you should be.” — CC

4. Choose your battles. “It’s an old lesson and sometimes we forget it: If the need is real, people will respond. We didn’t yell ‘wolf’ for 72 years, but when we did, people listened.” — HP

5. Show both your donors and the community at large real results. “The greatest thing we can do is show people how a life is changed, men and women who came through the program three or four years ago and today are productive members of society. Twenty-five percent of our staff are former clients. And these aren’t just people sorting canned goods; these are our case workers and directors of programs.” — HP

6. Be ethical. “People are wiser today; they want to know that it’s real.” — HP

When Craig Carpenter took over as director of development at Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission in March 2002, it was the worst of times and, well, it was the worst of times. The country was still in shock from the events of Sept. 11, 2001. War was looming, the economy was reeling, and the stock market was tumbling. People were afraid to open their mail for fear of being infected with anthrax.

And UGM’s men’s shelter was in need of about $2 million worth of structural re-engineering to guarantee that it could continue to safely house the mission’s many residents and programs. UGM could thank the 6.8-magnitude earthquake that had hit Seattle a year earlier for that little slap in the face. When the city inspected the $850,000 worth of damage that the building sustained in the quake, officials decided that they couldn’t certify the building as safe unless it underwent a retrofit, which involved starting in the basement and reinforcing the walls with crisscrossing steel beams all the way to the top.

Because of the shelter’s location in the heart of the city — just a block from an area where homeless people gather — UGM was determined not to move to another building. And it was equally as determined not to curtail services while the construction was going on.

But good intentions aside, things weren’t looking too promising. Like at most nonprofits, UGM’s development program was feeling the effects of a world gone mad.

“With everything that had been going on in the world and the country, we had seen revenues plummet; we had seen responses plummet in cultivation and acquisitions; acquisitions was very poor, so it really did impact migration through the donor files, and it impacted giving,” Carpenter says. “Retention rates were poor, and giving was just down.

SEATTLE’S UNION GOSPEL MISSION

What: A faith-based organization providing emergency food and shelter, as well as long-term addiction-recovery programs, education and life-skills counseling to men, women and children in the Greater Seattle area.

Headquarters: 3800 S. Othello St., Seattle, WA 98118

Phone: 206.723.0767

Fax: 206.723.1076

E-mail: ugmissn@ugm.org

On the Web: www.ugm.org

The Figures:

Employees: 150
Annual operating budget: Just under $12 million
Total contributed income: 95 percent
Masterfile: Just under 45,000 active donors — up from 41,235 in FY03 — with 115,000 total lapsed donors on file.

The Mission: “Seattle’s Union Gospel Mission is an expanding Evangelical Christian ministry serving the Greater Seattle community. By sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ through the power of the Holy Spirit, we are meeting the spiritual, social and physical needs of people. UGM serves an ever-changing society through direct rescue mission work. As God leads, we partner with churches, individuals and organizations to maximize our total effectiveness.” (From www.ugm.org)

What it does: Offers a variety of residential programs so that “people can come in off the streets and find care and counseling so they can change their lives, abandon those addictions that have plagued them for so many years, get education and training, and make themselves life-ready so they can get back into the community and contribute.” — CC

What it doesn’t do: Simply offer a free meal and place to stay. “All that does is perpetuate their condition and keep them alive until the next day. These people are destitute; they’ve lost hope; they’ve lost their self-respect. They’ve hit rock bottom so often they’re bouncing. What we really want to do is transform lives.” — CC

The philosophy: “We are a faith-based Christian organization, and we cannot separate the spiritual training that goes on from the education training, the job skills, the life skills. It’s just our philosophy. We are Christians.” — CC

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On a Wing and a Prayer