Salvation Army trails fundraising goal as deadline approaches

The Salvation Army-Springfield is short of its annual Tree of Lights campaign goal by 35 percent, a nonprofit official said.

Mandy Long, development director of the Springfield chapter, said the organization is at 65 percent of its $1 million goal, meaning it still needs to raise roughly $350,000 by mid-January. The fundraiser is sitting at about the same level from a week ago, when The Salvation Army issued a news release calling on donations.

At roughly $650,000, the campaign also trails last year’s total of $808,000, which beat an $800,000 target. Majs. Butch and Lisa Frost, the new leaders of the local chapter, raised the goal by 25 percent this year.

The Tree of Lights fundraiser is Salvation Army-Springfield’s largest of the year. It represents roughly a third of the local chapter’s annual operating budget for 2018. Salvation Army-Springfield ranked ninth this year on Springfield Business Journal’s list of the area’s largest nonprofits with a 2017 operating budget of $3 million.

Donations are largely collected by bell ringers outside grocery stores and other locations, as well as through a direct-mail campaign. Donations fund the chapter’s poverty-alleviation programs in Greene and Christian counties.