The Washington times., 1925-05-27
Community Chest Idea
Has Won Cincinnati
City Has Had Ten Years Of
Experience With Plan
and Likes It
By sPECIAL CORREsPONDENT

BY SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT.
CINCINNATI, May 27.-should
washington organize q Community
Chest, it will have available. ifs 1t
20 wishes, all of the combined ex-
perience of more than two hum
dred Community Chests and Com
munity Funds throughout the coun.
try, covering a period of more than
ten years experience. There is an
American Association for Com
! munity Organization, with head
quarters at 215 Fourth Ave-, New
York. which is a storehouse OF
information and helpfulness. and
the Washington organization as a.
member. j
The news that the citizens Of
Washington are thinking ef or
ganizing a Community Chest has
aroused great interest in Cincinnati,
which was one OF the pioneers in
the movement, and out of which
came several fundamental ideas
which have been universally adopt
ed throughout the country. Rela-
lively, the whole idea of cooper
ative social service and cooperative
financing of social work on a
community basis is quite new, not
more than eleven or twelve years
old.
Movement Began In 1915.
In Cincinnati the movement be.
gan in 1915 and the Community
Chest in this city has just com.
pleted it's eleventh and most sue
cessful financial campaign in which
- n
for the support of eighty-three
social agencies for the ensuing
fiscal year. The general public as
q rule spares more attention for
the financial aspects of the matter
than to the social aspects, and
while the former Is of primary i'm
portance, the real underlying pur-
pose of the Community Chest move
ment is to raise the standards of
social work so that communities
will be better places and healthier
places in which to live.
The money which Is raised is the
ammunition on which the hattie
for higher standards is fought. The
need for some general and carefully
thought out plan which permanent
lY would reduce the number of vic
tins of bad social conditions was
the incentive for the present form
of community chest. Prior to the
adoption of this plan social service
was carried on by scores of unre-
lated agencies and organizations
which duplicated one another's
work in the Same field, giving to
some fields more work than needed
and leaving others almost wholly
uncovered. This was wasteful and
inefficient, and solved, nothing in
the way OF social problem.
Then, too, each agency went out
for it's own funds Independently of
all others, with the result that hte
public was solicited weekly or
oftener throughout the whole year.
Loss Done Away With
A survey in Cincinnati ten years
aKo showed that the. cost of raising
money in this haphazard manner
generally reached Is, 25 and in
some instances 40 per cent of the
whole sum raised. All this loss has
now been done away with. With
their budgets pooled in one cam
paign, the cost of raising the total,
now well over $1,S00,000, is less
than 2 per cent OF the whole
amount. The public likes the pres
ent plan much better because 1T is
saved constant solicitation. The
public likewise has learned from
experience that the apportionment
of this total to the agencies is
always faithfully and fairly carried
out, and that the agencies are now
sure of adequate funds, regularly
supplied.
The faith Of the public in the
central organization is shown in the
fact that In ten years the number
of regular givers has increased from
about $500 to $4,000, while at theI
same time the per capita gift has
greatly increased. At the present
time this per capita based on a.