Northern Ontario charities struggling to reach Christmas fundraising goals

As the North Bay Santa Fund preparesto hand out more than 500 food hampers to families in need on Friday, the organization has yet to reach its fundraising goal and it's hoping a final fundraising push will get it over the finish line.

"In the past, North Bay has been able to step up and dig deep during the last couple daysof the Santa Fund to get us to our goal. We're hopeful that can happen again this year," said co-chair Geoff Richardson.

For 75 years the group has given out hampers of food and toys to families in North Bay, but this year, the fundraising effort has been particularly challenging.

"You know the economic slowdown mixed with still people recovering from COVID, and inflation, have really created a situation where it's been very difficult to achieve our goal," Richardson said.

The North Bay Santa Fund is not the only organization seeing donations flowing in more slowly than usual this year.

The Salvation Army raises money each year through its Christmas kettle campaign, to support its year-round operations. In Sudbury, the charity set a $280,000 fundraising goal, but as of Thursday had only reached about 60 per cent of that goal.

"We're finding it hard to get some volunteers out to stand at our Christmas kettles, but also there are a lot of people who are just hurting or struggling to get by financially," said pastor Jeff Robertson who, along with his wife, is responsible for operating the Salvation Army's community and family services in Sudbury.

"Perhaps they're choosing to buy that pound of butter rather than putting in you know 5 bucks in the Christmas kettle," Robertson said.

He said the Salvation Army is also seeing that needreflected in demand for its Christmas hampers.

Robertson said the charity had budgeted for about 900 hampers, which include food for Christmas dinner, along with toys for children, but has "blown past that," to about 1,100.

He said depending on the final results of the fundraising campaign, the organization may have to make "some tough decisions in the new year" when it develops its budget.

Robertson is still hopeful, however, for last minute donations before the kettle campaign wraps up on Dec. 24, and that more donations could continue to come in after Christmas.

In North Bay, Geoff Richardson is also remaining optimistic. The group has a contingency fund it can fall back on, but he's hoping it won't need to.

"Being that we're a Christmas fundraiser, we sometimes do relyon Christmas miracles."