If the Cascade People's Center can raise $25,000 at a benefit dinner this week, it just might make it to March and an annual fundraising auction that could keep the center open through the rest of 2009.
That's the situation South Lake Union's grassroots community center finds itself in at the end of 2008: scrambling to survive in the wake of a city decision not to fund $75,000 of its budget next year.
In November, the 10-year-old center, which sponsors afterschool programs, classes, events, and meals next door to Cascade Park, sent out a press release saying that, without the money, it would close its doors Dec. 31. Since then, neighbors and volunteers have vowed to carry on, opening a thrift store at the site, appealing to donors, and holding a benefit dinner on Dec. 8.
In the past four weeks, the efforts have raised $19,000, "which is completely unbelievable," says Myla Becker, the center's program manager. It has commitments for more from corporations and donors, she says, but the goal -- and plan to save the center, at this point -- is to raise $45,000, which will keep the lights on until March, when an annual auction typically brings in about $70,000.
In the meantime, two of the center's four part-time staff members have lost their jobs, with two part-time paid VISTA volunteers remaining until July, when their yearlong assignments are up.
The center's budget for 2009, Becker says, is $165,000, half what it was in 2007. The city has steadily reduced its contribution over the past few years, providing $100,000 in one-time funding last year. Council budget chair Jean Godden says the center was to use that for what it's doing now: fundraising.
With the city facing its own budget deficit in 2009, Cascade People's Center "just did not make the cut," Godden says.
Becker says the $100,000 the center got this year from the city came with a stipulation that it spend $25,000 to develop a strategic plan for its financial sustainability. The center did so, she says, creating a three-year plan for reaching that goal.
When the council approved the plan earlier this year, she says, it led to a misunderstanding that the center had three years to become self-sustaining. "Our perception was that there would be an open door for being able to talk with [the council] in 2009 and 2010 about what was in our plan and our progress," Becker says.
The good news, she says, is that the Parks Department is considering waiving the center's rental payments in 2009 to let it focus on fundraising.
Ultimately, says volunteer Candi Wilvang, who runs the center's thrift store seven days a week, the center may end up an all-volunteer operation, costing Becker her job as well. But, "We're just going to try to save our butts," she says, "and go on without the city's $75,000."