Nonprofits Feeling Aftershocks of Severe Weather Outbreak

The recent severe storms have created a real strain on a number of nonprofit agencies.

Thursday, May 20th 2010, 6:59 pm

By: News 9


By Adrianna Iwasinski, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The recent severe storms have created a real strain on a number of nonprofit agencies.

Nonprofit agencies rely on generous donations to function, and many nonprofit agencies were already hurting from a drop in donations due to the recession.

"It really does put a strain on our budget numbers. Obviously this is not something you can budget for. You cannot budget for catastrophic events to come through," said Kyla Campbell, Red Cross spokesperson.

The Red Cross has to be ready to respond to a disaster the minute it strikes no matter what, and the organization does. But even they have experienced a drop in donor dollars.

"Absolutely we've seen a tremendous decrease just over this last six months," Campbell said.

Though the local Red Cross has not experienced any cuts in services or staff, there have been cuts nationally. That's a problem a few other United Way partners have felt as well.

"Donations for us have stayed pretty steady, but I certainly know that with our other agencies that's a challenge around town," Spinks said.

The Red Cross does have the yearly budget to handle local disasters like house fires and small scale tornadoes, but it does not have the budget for large scale disasters like last week's tornado outbreak. That alone will cost the local Red Cross hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"The last thing we want is to do is see the service ever not be at the level it needs to be at for our communities needs, and we have an extremely disaster prone state so we do need constant community support," Campbell said.

The Red Cross is having its main fundraiser at the Skirvin hotel next Friday, May 28.

Learn more about the Red Cross' fundraiser and how you can help.

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