Kristie Scott got an unwelcome surprise this year.
When she looked at how much her Windham-based addiction and mental health services nonprofit, Perception Programs, has been able to raise through its annual fundraiser she did a double take.
“Did I write a crappy letter? Did [the letters] all go out?” she asked herself.
As of late March, Perception Partners, which kicked off its fundraiser in December, raised only about $8,600 from donors, less than a third of what it logged during the same period in 2018. The number is so far off from the $20,000 to $25,000 the nonprofit typically receives at this point in the year — mostly from individuals donating between $100 and $200 — Scott decided to hire Perception Partner’s first-ever donor-relations staffer.
“I try not to panic,” Scott said. “We are almost into April and we are looking at a huge loss.”
Perception Partners isn’t the only Connecticut nonprofit noticing a fall-off in donations.
Forty-two percent of the 108 nonprofits recently surveyed by the CT Nonprofit Alliance and Connecticut Council for Philanthropy said they saw a decrease in donations in 2018, or expect a downturn this year.