Red Cross chapter tackles deficit

By Lindsay VanHulle
lvanhulle@record-eagle.com

Tue, May 13 2008

—

TRAVERSE CITY -- A local chapter of the American Red Cross is restructuring its operations and business approach in an attempt to shrink a $90,000 budget deficit.

The action will remove two full-time, paid staff members from the Northwest Michigan chapter, based in Traverse City, and bring in an unpaid interim director until funding increases enough to reinstate them, board chairman Jim Bolinski said.

The board of directors made the decision this week "solely predicated on lack of finances," Bolinski said. "Every budget cut was made that could be made."

The chapter serves Grand Traverse, Leelanau, Benzie and Kalkaska counties.

Executive Director Joyce Wittbrodt and emergency services director Jay Morse will be relieved of their duties April 1, Bolinski said, and benefits packages will extend until May 1.

A third paid staff member, a part-time office assistant, will continue on the chapter's payroll, Bolinski said. Most of the organization consists of volunteers.

John Sanford, of the Red Cross' Great Lakes Service Area, became interim director Tuesday. He said his office assists chapters throughout western Michigan.

About $300,000 was budgeted this year, but only about $210,000 was received through donations, Bolinski said. The chapter receives no state or federal funding.

"We would probably attribute it most to an economic downturn, and people just don't have as much to give as they used to," he said. "We were just more hopeful than we should have been."

The budget covers all programs, including blood drives, lifesaving classes and disaster relief.

Of that, $89,000 was allocated to emergency services, which employees said has taken most of the burden. About $125,000 was spent in all.

Donations are down 37 percent, "yet our services are doubling," Wittbrodt said.

In 2007, the Red Cross responded to 39 calls for disaster relief, nearly twice the 23 calls the year before, she said. So far this year, the chapter has assisted on nine calls.

Reducing staffing is a way to keep services intact, many of which are run by volunteers, Bolinski said.

Wittbrodt earns about $47,000, and Morse about $35,000, he said.

"We've worked very hard to build service delivery to the level it is now, and we don't want to change that in any way," Bolinski said.

The chapter also will retain two full-time AmeriCorps volunteers.

Morse said a part-time emergency services position was eliminated last August to help make ends meet.

In October, a full-time employee was let go and additional cutbacks were made to part-time instructors.