Do you wanna know where I've been?

In addition to the thousands of people who visit this website every month or read my stories via RSS, more than 700 people are signed up to receive Don't Tell the Donor by email. In the two weeks since I last posted to this blog, many of you have emailed to ask where I've been or why I stopped writing. So... I'm going to tell you:

I bought a time machine.

That's right, a small metal chair rigged to flux capacitor which only requires 1.21 gigawatts of electrical power to send me flying forward or backward in time. Despite my lifelong promise to myself that if I should go back in time and steal someone else's invention or stop myself from making all those mistakes I made in high school... alas... I decided to use the time machine to travel into the future to share with you what fundraising will look like next year at this time.

It's worse than just not good... it's downright scary.

The housing market isn't going to get better. As a result, I guess it was inevitable that banks like Wachovia, Washington Mutual, PNC Bank, and Fifth Third were going to go belly-up... but, even I was surprised to see General Motors and American Airlines file for bankruptcy.

Unemployment soars above 6% and many of you lose your jobs as smaller nonprofits begin to disintegrate in larger numbers. I hate to say I warned you this was going to happen... but I even ran around with my hair on fire trying to get your attention.

This isn't a normal recession. Unfortunately, this is an unraveling of a massive credit bubble... and it will not end through the normal cyclical economic patterns.

The truth of the matter is that you don't need a time machine. The writing is already on the wall. Target Analytics reported yesterday that revenue declined in the 1st quarter of 2008 for 60% of the 72 large organizations in their benchmarking study. Giving USA Foundation and the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University reported individual and corporate giving actually declined in 2007 when adjusted for inflation.

So... go back to living in denial if you want to... or you can adjust yourself and your fundraising programs for the new economy... either way, it's not going to get better for at least another year.

American Charities Raise $33-Million for Asian Disasters

The Chronicle of Philanthropy released the first real fundraising numbers I've seen to date on the pair of recent natural disasters in China and Burma.

"American relief groups have raised at least $32-million for victims of the China earthquake and the Myanmar cyclone. The groups say about $16-million has been donated to each cause."

Hat tip to Caroline Preston for pulling together the great research in pulling together a long list of foundations who have made big grants and the charities that have been in a position to put the good will to work where it's needed.

Let's face it - most of your donors have credit card debt

I wrote last week about the ethical dilemma facing fundraisers who see their donors making gifts on credit cards. As usually happens when I'm too far out in front of the accepted debate - many have been skeptical.

My favorite response was from a reader who told me, "I doubt that my donors who are making donations are the type of people who have big credit card debts." Seriously? I'm think that's pretty naive.

Your donors are not millionaires. Let's face it - most Americans carry credit card debt they can't afford to pay off all once. In fact, just today TransUnion released a survey conducted by Zogby that found 61% of Americans said they will spend less or not go on vacation this summer. When asked why, "Thirty-five percent cite concern about credit card debt, and nearly half (47 percent) cite concern about other debt or financial obligations."

Let me do one better:

A 2007 survey by CardTrak.com found that American households with credit card debt owed a median of $6,600, and that less than one-third of households pay of their balances monthly. The survey also found that 13 percent of those who carry credit card debt have balances in excess of $25,000.

I think it is foolish to assume your donors don't have credit card debt. For many people, making a donation is an emotional reaction to a well reasoned understanding of the problems facing our world... donors don't check their debt balances first before responding to a nonprofit's call for help.

I'm sure that Liz Pulliam Weston disagrees with me, but let me ask these two questions to get the debate started. Do you personally have credit card debt? Have you made a donation in the past 12 months?

Will the ticking credit card time bomb impact donations?

For the past few years fundraisers have been aggressively pushing donors to give by credit card instead of by check... especially when it comes to the increase in online fundraising and/or monthly giving programs.

But there is a growing sense of dread that a pending tsunami of credit card defaults is creating a ticking time bomb in this country... and I am going to go out on a limb (just like I did early last December when I warned about the looming recession) and predict that fundraisers will need to grapple with serious concerns about donors who are charging their donations.

Do we have any ethical concerns about donors putting a $100 donation that they can't afford on a credit card where it will eventually cost them $130 in interest? Do fundraisers benefit by getting donors to give more when they use a credit card than they would if they had to use cash?
I read some alarming statistics last week:

"According to Equifax, a credit card analysis firm, people have been buying more with their credit cards but paying down less. As a result average balances jumped nearly 9% in 2007 and delinquency rates recently hit a 4-year high of 4.5%.

Also, the reliance on credit cards is preventing some of the markets salutary forces from working. With credit always an option, domestic demand remains strong despite rising prices. Absent the option of putting more costly gasoline on their credit cards, Americans might have actually been forced to cut back on their consumption, taking some of the upward pressure off gas prices.

It should be painfully obvious that expanded consumer credit is not evidence of improvement, but simply, deterioration. Unfortunately, when it comes to understanding the economy, there is little common sense on display. By going even deeper into debt just to make ends meet, American consumers are digging themselves, and our entire economy, into an even greater economic hole and laying the foundation for the next major credit debacle."

I'm sure people have been warning about credit card debt since the first person used their Diner's Club card to buy a dinner for friends that he/she couldn't afford... but with the reality of the housing implosion hitting home now - many people think a credit card default crisis is closer than we think.

So, what should we do? Continue to ask donors to put their gift on credit cards... but only if they promise to be responsible and pay off the card balance every month?

I'm going to talk about this more in the next couple weeks... but in the meantime, I think nonprofit fundraisers should start to truly understand the real cost of processing donations on credit cards. Start by reading this article about how the organizations that handle Internet contributions and related services for the presidential campaigns have already collected more than $11 million in fees!

Where will you donate your $600 tax rebate check?

Okay folks, it's time for an interactive post that requires feedback from loyal readers of Don't Tell the Donor. A good friend forwarded me an article by Stephanie Strom at the New York Times who wrote about the opportunities for charities who plan to ask supporters to donate their $600 rebate check.

I'm asking readers to post a comment with the best fundraising pitch they've seen from nonprofits. If you can include a link, that's great... if it's an email you received, please include the charity's name and copy and paste some of the text.

The Times article spends too much time quoting the fundraising consultant Robert Sharpe and only three weak examples are cited from:

* The VFW National Home for Children
* Arkansas Sheriffs’ Youth Ranches
* Peace Action

...but I know this audience can compile a good list of which organizations are on the creative cutting edge by offering donors an easy way to donate their rebate.

Fundraising priest disappears after floating away on 1000 helium balloons

A Brazilian priest named Rev. Adelir Antonio di Carli took off Sunday from the coastal city of Paranagua in southern Brazil, buoyed by 1,000 helium-filled balloons. Unfortunately, less than eight hours after taking flight, Fr De Carli lost contact with authorities and was reported missing.

He was seeking to break a 19-hour record for the longest time in-flight with balloons and to raise money for a 'spiritual rest stop' for truckers in Paranagua.

The cluster of yellow, orange, pink and white balloons was seen last night, floating intact in the sea off Santa Catarina state near Fr di Carli's last contact point.

The priest embarked on a similar adventure in January this year when he used only 600 balloons to carry him on a four-hour, 5,300m-high voyage from the town of Ampere to neighbouring Argentina.



According to the CBC in Canada, some people are criticizing the fundraising stunt:

Meanwhile, a flight instructor who expelled di Carli from flight school three years ago has publicly criticized the priest for his stunt, Gancia said.

"He called him undisciplined and an exhibitionist, and he was always bragging about his faith and how his faith was going to carry him and take him safely through his journey. And that's not what happened."

He was reported to have been strapped into an inflatable chair, wearing a thermal outfit and helmet. He also had a parachute, however rescuers admit that hope is fading.

Who says real estate stinks?

The real estate industry might be in a miserable funk these days, but that didn't stop the folks at CENTURY 21 from raising $3.8 million for Easter Seals in 2007.

For the 13th consecutive year, CENTURY 21 Town and Country,headquartered in Rochester, Mich., was the top CENTURY 21 System EasterSeals contributor. Led by broker/owner John Kersten, the company raised$912,962 for Easter Seals Michigan
in 2007, bringing the company's totalcontributions to more than $9 million since 1992.

And while the housing market shows no signs of improving, the CENTURY 21 System announced a national $5 million fundraising challenge for 2008. If achieved, the CENTURY 21 System will exceed the $100 million dollar fundraising mark.

Paralyzed Veterans of America fights Washington Post on negative fundraising coverage

Last December, the Washington Post ran a Page 1 story the used an American Institute of Philanthropy report to criticize veterans charities for being inefficient fundraisers.

Paralyzed Veterans of America received an "F" grade and was listed in a chart, which said: "Letter grades were based largely on the charities' fundraising costs and the percentages of money raised that was spent on charitable activities."

Well... PVA fought back and Homer S. Townsend Jr., the PVA's acting executive director, complained to the newspaper by saying the Post's publication of those grades "without an explanation of how they were derived is a disservice to readers and the affected charities."

Last Sunday, the Post's ombudsman agreed with some of PVA's criticisms.

Townsend said the organization lost $500,000 from a donor who didn't like the "bad publicity." Townsend said that by running the story on Page 1, The Post "gave those ratings unquestioned legitimacy. Your readers deserve explanations of this complex subject." And complex it is. My reporting found that charity watchdogs compete with one another and don't agree on standards.

I think it's a good case study for how charities should respond whenever reporters try to write these simplistic "charity efficiency ratings" stories.

Three political fundraising headlines

Here are three political fundraising stories I saw on Tuesday that caught my attention:

The Conservative Pulse made it sound as if Ron Paul's fundraising numbers are starting to dry up after the maverick candidate failed to make a significant showing in any primary so far.

The week of January 21st, the Paul campaign added over $2.2 million to their bank account. Last week the campaign raised $1.6 million. This week, all signs suggest that the Paul campaign will take in only about $250k in donations.

Meanwhile, it was interesting to see how far John McCain's luck has changed. Last summer when McCain was at a low point in the polls and his fundraising had bottomed out, he asked to participate in the public campaign finance system.

However, on Tuesday McCain sent letters to the Federal Election Commission and the Treasury Department notifying them of his decision to withdraw from the presidential election financing system.

Though the FEC declared him eligible to receive $5.8 million in December, the money would not have become available until next month. By accepting the money, moreover, McCain would have been required to limit his spending for the primary to about $54 million — an amount the campaign was close to reaching now.

I thought the captain of the "Straight Talk Express" was a a passionate advocate of limits on campaign finances.

Finally, CQ Politics published an article that examines the fundraising powerhouses behind 10 of the best funded incumbent House members. The article shows why it is so hard to beat an incumbent:

In fact, 65 U.S. House incumbents each reported more than $1 million in total receipts last year, including six who topped the $2 million mark, according to a CQ Politics analysis of updated campaign finance reports filed by candidates to the Federal Election Commission (FEC) at the end of January.

Politics shouldn't really count as nonprofit fundraising.

Navy Times weighs in on investigation of veteran charities

The Navy Times is a very powerful newspaper. Some people have pointed to an editorial in the esteemed military paper titled "Time for Rumsfeld to Go," on November 6, 2006 as being the straw the broke the camel's back... less than 48 hours after that column ran, the former Secretary of Defense was pushed out of his job.

So, it was a very big deal yesterday when the Navy Times joined other media outlets in raising ethical concerns over Tommy Franks acceptance of $100,000 to appear in a fundraising letter for a veterans charity that is alleged to have spent only 25% of donations on program expenses.

Unfortunately, the Navy Times failed to mention the name of Richard A. Viguerie - and therefore, may be overlooking the most interesting aspect of this scandal.

The Congressional investigation into the "veterans charities" in question revealed that Viguerie was paid millions of dollars in fundraising-consulting contracts and even received a $1 million loan for a start-up initiative from the charity.

Richard Viguerie has been dubbed the "funding father" of modern conservative strategy, having pioneered important tactics in computerized direct mail strategy in the 1970s and 1980s. He is considered the direct mail titan of the right.

I found this 1982 article titled "Direct Mail: The Underground" which describes Viguerie like this:

Richard Viguerie, the direct-mail impresario of the New Right, is credited with first using letters as a medium rather than merely as a fund-raising trigger. For eighteen years, Viguerie has used the mail as an explicit alternative to what he sees as a liberal monopoly in the media mainstream . "It's not that the media presents [sic] the news in a partisan way, it's that they present the positive side of liberal causes, liberal issues, liberal personalities and, for the most part, ignore conservative causes, conservative issues, and conservative personalities, or present them in an unfavorable manner," Viguerie wrote in 1980 in The New Right: We're Ready to Lead. "However, there is one method of mass commercial communication that the liberals do not control - direct mail . . . . You can think of direct mail as our TV, radio, daily newspaper and weekly news magazine."

During the last few years Viguerie has earned a pretty penny as a fundraising consultant for right wing causes... which makes it all the more interesting that he is caught up in this most recent controversy of fundraising costs at a charity that is supposed to help injured Vets.

House Committtee investigates two Veterans charities over excessive fundraising charges

The President and Founder of the nonprofit group "Help Hospitalized Veterans" was forced to testify before the House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform late last week.

Forbes reported this story:

The focus of Thursday's session was Roger Chapin, president of Help Hospitalized Veterans (HHV) of Winchester, Calif., and the Coalition to Salute America's Heroes Foundation in Ossining, N.Y. Chapin had declined an invitation to appear voluntarily at a December hearing, forcing the committee to subpoena him.

Philip Rucker covered the story on Friday and shared enough details to guarantee the scandalous story would receive front page treatment in Friday's Washington Post.

At a raucous, three-hour hearing [Thursday], House members questioned California entrepreneur Roger Chapin about his management of two charities. One charity, Help Hospitalized Veterans, spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations that were to help wounded soldiers on personal expenses for Chapin, executive director Mike Lynch and [conservative activist] Richard A. Viguerie, to whom the charity has awarded millions of dollars in fundraising-consulting contracts, the hearing found.

The expenses included at least $340,000 in meals, hotels and entertainment; a $135,000 loan to Lynch for a divorce settlement with his former wife; a $17,000 country club membership; three airplane tickets to Hawaii; and a $1 million loan to Viguerie for a start-up initiative at his firm, several members of the committee said.

Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the committee, said Help Hospitalized Veterans raised more than $168 million from 2004 to 2006. The charity spent a quarter of those donations on the veterans, with the rest going to direct-mail fundraising, salaries and other expenses, Waxman said.

At one point during the hearing:

Rep. Christopher Shays (R-Conn.) asked Chapin what would happen if his charities told donors how their donations were spent.

"If we disclose, which I'm more than happy to do, we'd all be out of business," Chapin said.

"Nobody would donate. It would dry up."

Chapin said few people know how expensive fundraising can be.

"If I could do better, I would," Chapin said. "I've tried television, I've tried radio, I've tried foundations, I've tried corporations and the only thing that works is direct mail."

You can watch or listen to the hearing here.

(Photo Credit: Sarah L. Voisin, The Washington Post)

NP Times names World's Best Fundraisers

Six years ago a friend gave me a t-shirt that says "#1 Fundraiser in the World."

I wear it to work sometimes underneath my clothes. I've found that, not only does it give me secret powers, it has also been a self-enforcing prophecy. I've had some of my greatness fundraising successes while wearing that t-shirt... after all, that don't give out shirts like that to just anyone.

So, you can imagine my shock when the NonProfit Times released their list of the World's Best Fundraisers today. They didn't mention the fact that I was already awarded this title (by way of my t-shirt) over six years ago.

Despite this oversight, I think the list (and the rational) is very solid:

Younger Than 40 - Sarah Tanner
Younger Than 40 - Brian Cowart
Online - Greenpeace International
Living Legend - Larry Jones
Cause Marketing - Dana Farber Cancer Institute
Direct Mail - Susan Loth
International - FINCA
Trendsetter - Jewish National Fund

Now that I know this t-shirt isn't an exclusive award... I might as well start selling "World's #1 Fundraiser" t-shirts and mugs in the Don't Tell the Donor online store.

AFP publishes more proof of fundraising divide

Look. I'm not here to waste your time.

Most people don't know this, but I have a magic crystal ball in my desk drawer. It has special powers that allow me to predict the future. Not only that, but I read a shit load of news stories everyday about fundraising in order to hopefully share some observations of what trends will influence our industry.

I'm not trying to scare you. I only want to warn you - so pay attention.

Small nonprofits seem to be in trouble... and it may only be a matter of time before larger groups start to see the same fundraising weakness creep into their programs.

The AFP published the results of an online fundraising survey today.

In general, larger organizations are faring better than smaller charities. Two-thirds of organizations with budgets greater than $50 million have raised more money during the last quarter of 2007 than in 2006, as are more than half (52.4 percent) of charities with budgets between $10 million and $50 million. In contrast, only about one-third (32.7 percent) of organizations with budgets smaller than $500,000 have raised more money during the last quarter of 2007 then they did during the same period in 2006.

Now, I know what you are thinking... fundraising is not an easy job. This is a very tough profession and if charities can't retain top quality talent and invest in fundraising, they aren't going to make it over the long run.

But if there is a recession looming which could cause an industry wide fundraising slump, there is no doubt smaller charities would be affected first. If you are a Development Director you might want to consider buying a canary for your coal mine in 2008.

Did the credit crisis kill Santa Claus?

Back in August when the sub prime housing bubble sparked a sell-off in the stock market, the New York Sun wrote an article asking if year-end fundraising would get caught in the downdraft.

"The credit crisis and the stock market turmoil are having a preliminary impact on the nonprofit sector and concern is growing that fund-raising could be hurt if the downturn continues to gain steam."

Yet before fundraisers could blink, the market rallied and stocks hit multi-year highs in the early fall and everything seemed fine again.

And then November happened. Investors began to see that the impacts of the housing "bubble" were beginning to spread and infect consumer spending. Huge financial institutions began to write off billions of dollars in bad debt. As a result, the stock market appears poised for another precipitous decline - one that could threaten to wipe out most of the gains from 2007 in the Dow and the S&P index.

If stocks suffer, year-end bonuses will suffer, and therefore, year-end giving will also suffer.

I know some fundraisers who dug out that newspaper article from August and are already preparing their excuses in case they don't hit their year end numbers. I've joked before about creating a major donor fundraiser anxiety index and selling it to the guys on Wall Street who would use it as a leading market indicator of consumer confidence.

Fundraisers don't need Morgan Stanley to tell them that the country will enter a recession in 2008... the smart development directors see it happening already.

Two more articles on Monday finally confirmed for me that Santa Claus might be having trouble making his adjustable rate jumbo mortgage and therefore won't be bringing many year-end presents.

First, MasterCard announced that sales of women’s clothing, a traditional pillar of the holiday shopping season, are unusually bleak so far this year. "From high-end dresses to bargain coats, spending on women’s apparel dropped nearly 6 percent during the first half of the Christmas season, compared with the same period last year."

The second ominous sign came from Tracie McMillan who published an article on MSNBC this morning profiling the fundraising worries at the National Wildlife Federation where fears of a donor drain have made it difficult to replace departing benefactors.

Bill Levis, the author of a new pilot survey by the Urban Institute that documents the trend. Levis’ survey shows that most nonprofits post an average gain of just 10 percent each year: they lose 52 percent of their donations, which is then offset by a 62 percent gain in new or upgraded donations. In short, says Levis, nonprofits are losing almost as much as they’re gaining, pouring a river of money into a nearly open drain.

You could make an argument that different nonprofits have different fundraising structures. Some cash strapped organizations are dependant on aggressive short term revenue targets at the expense of growing a more sustainable long term donor value... but that misses the point.

If the economy is about to hit a recession, nonprofit fundraisers will be among the first to know it.

UPDATE: I can't imagine what it must be like to live in Manhattan and be surrounded by this shit all the time - but a Wall Street blog is reporting that Morgan Stanley and Bear Sterns are "much lower" than last years.

Former Bears coach Mike Ditka faces fundraising questions

Last week, the USA TODAY reported on the financial questions surrounding Mike Ditka's charity fundraising.

Twice this year, pro football legend Mike Ditka has blasted the National Football League and its players union, telling Congress that both groups are "delaying or denying" requests by needy retired players for help.

Ditka formed a charity in 2004 to aid those players. The Mike Ditka Hall of Fame Assistance Trust Fund has collected $1.3 million and netted about $315,000 after expenses. But it has given only $57,000 to former players in need, according to federal and Illinois tax records.

The trust paid more in fees to induce former stars to appear at a 2005 fundraiser than it gave needy ex-players in its first 3 years.

The net looks low because the charity spent $715,000, the bulk of the money it raised, to put on three annual golf tournaments. That figure includes payments of about $280,000 to a Chicago firm that organized the tournaments and at least $65,000 in honoraria to ex-stars.

Ditka is the outspoken former Hall of Fame player and coach for the Chicago Bears. In June, he told a House panel that injured and needy ex-players are "treated like dogs" while the union "does nothing material to help these guys." His charity, he said then, was created to redress "this grave injustice."

The charity, recognized by the Internal Revenue Service as a tax-exempt organization, gave nothing to players during its first two years. It aided 10 ex-players in 2006.

Carl Francis, a spokesman for the players union, that Ditka frequently targeted, used the story to point out the potential hypocrisy in Ditka's criticisms.

"At some point it's got to be about more than holding yet another press conference and blasting people," Francis said. "You ought to be announcing 'We just gave away a half a million.' Unless, of course, you didn't."

Now, the former NFL legend is paying more attention.

Ditka said he had paid little attention to his charity's numbers until this year. He has begun cutting fundraising costs and will insist that half of the annual tournament's proceeds be paid out, he said, adding that the trustees have been told to pay needy players first before requiring them to fill out forms.

Daniel Borochoff, president of the American Institute of Philanthropy, a charity watchdog, said the Ditka trust may have underestimated the charity's workload by naming only two volunteer trustees — three fewer than the minimum the institute recommends.

The group, he said, appears to have underestimated the cost of putting on golf tournaments, which are typically among the most expensive types of fundraiser.

This isn't the first time celebrities seemed surprised to hear that lending their name to charity fund can go badly unless you pay attention to the important things - like money.

Now the Chicago Sun Times and others are starting to ask hard questions.

Four weeks too late

It's hard to get a lot of respect as an anonymous blogger. I understand that. Why would you trust someone who writes a blog without the accountability of their own personal reputation? That's one of the reasons, I got myself an intern to kick around.

But, come on. That doesn't mean you can simply ignore anonymous blogs altogether and wait for the mainstream media to deliver the news you need.

The security breach at Convio is a perfect case in point. Those of you that read this blog regularly knew back on November 4th that Convio had confirmed the fact that hackers stole password information. During the days that followed, I published no less than 13 entries, I kept in contact with the folks at Convio to ask questions and get official comments, I even posted a detailed analysis on what 6 groups did to notify their members.

I'm not trying to toot my own horn. However, I am shocked by the amount of email I received today from folks who only read about the security breach yesterday in the New York Times. One email was even titled, "BREAKING NEWS" and begged me to notify readers immediately?

Seriously? If anything bad happened, the risk was four weeks ago when the breach occurred.

This isn't news. I'm not sure why the New York Times waited so long to publish their story... Stephanie Strom had to have known this was old news. So, either the timing of the publication is weird or the New York Times just proves once again how blogs have changed the speed of the information world.

Word of Red Cross leader's resignation travels quickly

Late this afternoon, the Red Cross Board of Governors announced on their website that President and CEO Mark W. Everson would be stepping down because of a 'personal relationship.'

It's only been a couple hours and already Google is showing 288 news stories.

Lucky for you, I finally got an intern at Don't Tell The Donor to boss around. I ordered him to read every single story. He rolled his eyes and refused... but at least he gave me this:

**********************************
CNN points out in their coverage that Everson is 53 years old, was paid $500,000-per-year, and perhaps most interesting:

The organization became aware of Everson's relationship with a female Red Cross employee 10 days ago, Chief Public Affairs Officer Suzy C. DeFrancis told CNN in a telephone interview.

Bloomberg describes Everson's previous professional experience as commissioner of the IRS and they reveal personal details about his family:

The former executive is married to Nanette Everson, a former White House lawyer under President George W. Bush who later served as general counsel of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission until last March. They have two children.

And the Nonprofit Times adds some details about emergency conference calls between the executive board and the full board. They also share some rumors of favored replacements:

The rumors of his replacement are already humming. One name is that of Frances Fragos Townsend, who recently stepped down as an advisor at the federal Department of Homeland Security and who was talked about as a possible CEO before Everson.

I'll post more coverage as soon my surprising lazy intern gets through some more articles. Email me if you have any tips about this story or if you have any suggestions on how I can intimidate my intern into working harder and faster.

Food depositories report decline in donations

In May of this year, the Wall Street Journal published a story about how food banks across the country have experienced a drop in food donations - by more than 15 or 20% in some cases.I read more this morning about how this pinch is hurting big cities like Chicago:

Food retailers and manufacturers, in other words, are becoming more efficient—wasting less food, mislabeling less often and instituting fewer marketing campaigns—resulting in less food donated to the depository.

The federal government, in the midst of a legislative roadblock regarding the 2007 Farm Bill, is providing less food for the depository. In 2005 the government provided 34 percent of the depositories’ food supply—16 million pounds. However in 2006 the government decreased its donation to 10 million pounds.

Go here for more of the story.

Will Edwards miss Q2 fundraising goal?

Randy Lilleston hints that Edwards is about to report a miss over at the USA Today's On Politics blog:

There's some back-of-the-hand math being performed in the media and blogosphere over an e-mail recently sent out by Joe Trippi, a senior adviser on John Edwards' campaign, in which he tells supporters the campaign is two-thirds of the way to its $9 million goal for the quarter. The problem: The quarter's almost over.

The Hill notes today that: 1) This gives Edwards only nine days to raise $3 million and 2) even the $9 million number would be $5 million less than Edwards raised in the first quarter.

Edwards' campaign, in return, tells The Hill their fundraising is going according to plan.

Rumors have been circulating all week. Townhall.com made similar calculations yesterday, while Politico.com earlier this week reported Edwards is refocusing on New Hampshire and is on track to raise considerably less this quarter than last.