St. Vincent de Paul Society    

4607 W. State Road 46

 (Warehouse:  1105 N. Jackson)

Bloomington IN 47404

812-961-1510•   www.bloomingtonsvdp.org

January, 2009

Report to the Bloomington Community (Fiscal Year 2008)

Last year, the Bloomington St. Vincent de Paul Society (SVDP) continued its tradition of using community furniture and cash donations to help the poor and needy in Monroe County.  SVDP is an all-volunteer society of about 50 active members focused on applying your donations where they will do the most good.  We respond to people who ask for help with furniture, rent, utilities, and the like; we try to assess their situation; and we then offer whatever appropriate help we can—including advice, moral support, and furniture or financial aid.  And we do this without regard to religion, race, creed, color, or sexual orientation.

What Is the Scope of Our Operation?  To provide furniture to those in need, we seek donations from furniture companies, motels, individuals, etc., and then pick up the furniture/appliance donations in our personal pickup trucks or our box truck.  Then each Saturday morning, clients pick up the items they need, as authorized in vouchers from local social service agencies and confirmed by our visits to their homes.  Last year, our volunteers made about 700 pickups of furniture donations, and provided over 500 needy families with 3400 furniture and appliance items worth $170,000.    

In addition to furniture aid, we responded to well over 2000 client requests for financial aid last year.  Some clients we refer to other agencies.  We try to go in pairs to visit most of the others to see how we can help.  The following table gives a good idea of what people needed and how we were able to respond:

We did the best we could with our limited resources and we believe we made a difference in the lives of many.

How Do Our Income and Overhead Compare?  Last year, our gross income was $93,000, with over 60 percent coming from the three local Catholic parishes, but with substantial donations coming from other community sources.  Our overhead was $22,000, about half of which was used to purchase a used truck, and the other half mainly for warehouse rent and utility expenses.  Thus our overhead was less than 10% of the $240,000 combined furniture and financial aid we provided.  Since we are an all-volunteer organization, there were no labor costs, and, moreover, volunteers commonly declined reimbursement for their expenses, such as for driving the tens of thousands of miles needed.

On behalf of our many poor and needy clients, we would like to thank the community for past donations, and to ask that we be kept in mind for future donations of cash or furniture.