Nonprofits can breathe a little easier these days knowing that individual giving is officially growing. In 2004, donations increased to U.S. charities—the first rise in inflation-adjusted dollars since 2000 according to Giving USA 2005, an annual report on philanthropy. This week, we look at one group—Easter Seals Central California—that turned to individual giving to gain financial stability. See the article below to learn how this group bounced back from four years of budget cuts.

Easter Seals Central California has been feeling the budget crunch as much or more than any nonprofit. In the last four years, two of its main funding sources have been cut or frozen. In order to maintain services, Easter Seals eliminated key management positions, froze wages, and reorganized, while still managing to expand some of its programs.

The organization currently serves 2,500 children and adults with disabilities through its various programs, such as personal aides for children in school, a home program for children with autism, a child care center, and a summer camp for children and adults.

But there are literally tens of thousands more people they could be helping.

Bruce Hinman, president of Easter Seals Central California, said one in five people in the United States has a disability. The Easter Seals mission—"to create solutions that change lives of children and adults with disabilities or other special needs and their families"—includes a wide spectrum of people in need. "Disabilities" span the range of a child born with Down's syndrome to an aging adult with Alzheimer's disease.

More than 90% of Easter Seals Central California's $6 million budget is from fees for services; less than 10% is from fundraising, said Hinman. So when revenues started being cut back, the group was strongly affected.

"It really creates a hardship in our organization to try and balance a budget and expand services, which we need to do without unrestricted revenue coming in from contributors," he said. "We have tried and tried a number of methods to raise funds in this organization."

Easter Seals Central California took a team of six to the Benevon 101 Workshop in 2002. They went back for the Benevon 201 Workshop, and are now part of a pilot group in Benevon's Five-Year Sustainable Funding Program^™. Hinman said his long-term goal is that contributions from individuals make up 20% of their budget and that over the next decade, the organization is able to create a substantial endowment.

Hinman said the reason he likes the Benevon Model is that it's a system. "The step-by-step process and kind of formulaic approach to raising more money takes almost all the guesswork out of it. So it makes it really practical and easy to understand for staff and volunteers," he said.

Easter Seals Central California has had two fundraising Ask Events^™—one in 2003 that raised $110,000 in gifts and pledges and one in 2004 that raised $120,000. Each had about 100 people in attendance.

Even though Easter Seals Central California had to cut its development staff from five to two, it has been able to sustain and even increase its level of giving, said Hinman.

Culturally, Easter Seals is finally getting people to really understand what they're about. They have three introductory Point of Entry^® Events a month—two at their office in Aptos and one at their child development center in Fresno. At these events, they connect people to their mission.

In Fresno, the office manager, Mary Ann Riojas, tells her own story. Mary Ann was born without legs and her right arm ends just below her elbow. She's also a single mom with four children. She went to an Easter Seals summer camp as a child and talks about the profound effect the camp had on her—helping her to believe she didn't have to accept the limitations of her disabilities. She grew up riding a skateboard, playing hopscotch, and performing chores at home alongside her two siblings. She helped her parents, who earned a living as migrant workers, pick grapes. Easter Seals taught her how to drive and gave her a job when no one else would. Mary Ann was recently announced as the Easter Seals national ambassador.

In Aptos, the staff tells of Luis, the son of migrant workers, who was born blind. Easter Seals provided him with a Braille teacher that went with him to school. An assistant took notes for Luis and then the Braille teacher worked with Luis every day to transcribe his notes in Braille so Luis could read them. Luis then did his homework in Braille and the Braille teacher transcribed it on paper to turn in to the classroom teacher. Hinman said Luis is the first person in his family to graduate from high school and now wants to become an attorney to help advocate for other people with disabilities.

Even though Easter Seals is full of stories like this, Hinman said they really didn't talk about their clients much before. "Now we're bringing in donors to meet us up close and personal in a way that we were not doing before. We continue to refine our message, giving it much more heart-appeal so that people understand much more about how Easter Seals actually changes lives. We're de-emphasizing statistics," he said. "People care about what we do to change lives, and that's what makes them want to get involved with us."

Easter Seals Central California is also de-emphasizing special events. They still have two golf tournaments a year, but gone are the telethons, bowl-a-thons, fishing tournaments, and silent auctions. "I think before, we thought we had to entertain people," he said. "Now we can tell them our story convincingly and tell them how they can help us change lives."

For more on this group, please visit their Web site.