Spirit of Giving Drops Off After Holidays

January 13, 2010, USA Today — A post-holiday slump in donations and volunteerism has some social-service agencies and non-profit groups wondering whether people packed away generosity with the tinsel.

"You have a tremendous outpouring of support in November and December, then in January, things get kind of dry," says John Psiharis, executive director of Chicago's Irving Park Community Food Pantry. It's a particularly troubling trend now, he says, as the number of clients climbs each month because of the troubled economy.