Evening star., 1925-04-19
THE COMMUNITY CHEST
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN

Recently a drive was made to raise
funds for a social welfare organiZa-
tion.s An expert in matters of that
kind was employed and over 100 busi-
ness and professional men were en-.
listed to do the soliciting in teams.
The drive lasted 10 days. Approx
mately $4,000 was raised. The ex-
penses, including the compensation of
the expert, amounted to some $4,000,
leaving a net of about $25,O0O.
One hundred men for 10 days rep.
resented 1000 days work which
netted barely S25 a day The men
engaged in this soliciting were all
busy men of affairs. many of them
men of large interests. The time of
every one of them was worth on an
average more than s25 a day.
This happened in Washington and is
cited as one of the reasons why lead
ing Washingtonians. who are inter.
ested in social service, have started
a movement to establish a community
chest in the Capital City. Another
reason is that there are so many of
these drives-scarcely a week passing
without a city, wide solicitation for
one charity or social welfare organi-
zation or another-that the contribut-
ing public has grown weary of con-
stant importunings to give and no
ioHSeI IcSpOlluS Hucldlly dHu CHeeT-
fully.
The big idea of the community
chest is that in one brief, intensified
campaign there are raised all the
funds that are needed by all the social
service institutions and organizations
in a city for one year. 1t means sys-
tematizing and centralizing philan-
thropy. 1t means that more money in
the aggregate is raised at materially
less expense, that the number of con-
tributors is vastly increased, that the
individual welfare units fare better
than when each makes it's own fight
for funds, that duplication and over.
tapping in charitable work are elimi-
mated, that larger share of the
donors dollar goes to the actual work
for which 1t Is intended, that the pro-
fessional social service workers can
give more time and energy to the du-
ties of the positions they occupy, that
rivalries in the raising of funds be-
tween or among the various social
service institutions and organizations
are eliminated, that the newspapers
are no longer asked to open their COL
umns daily to the propaganda of a
hundred or more charitable causes, I"
and that the individual contributor
can determine exactly what he can
and will give to charity in year,
give 1t, and then be assured that for
IL months he will be spared the har-
assment of tag days, begging letters
and personal solicitation.
Economy and Efficiency.
In brief, the argument for the com.
munity chest is essentially one Of
economy and efficiency. That is why
it appeals to such men as President
Calvin Coolidge and Secretary Herbert
Hoover, who have long been fighting
for the elimination of waste in every
thing that affects the public interest.
Some years ago an investigation
was made of the philanthropies of
a large city, and it was learned that
of every dollar given to charity bare
ly 20 cents was expended in the cause
for which the contribution was made.
The other 80 cents went for the ex-
penses of raising funds and the over
head in administering the charities
Needless to say. that city did not
have a community chest.
A study of social agencies and
the community" made by the
civic development department of the
Chamber of Commerce of the United
States shows that out of "a cities
from which reports were received so
had the community chest system or
some sort of financial federation hay-
ing some of the features of the chest.
Cleveland and Cincinnati are two
cities in which the community chest
has been notably successful. In the
hitter CITY the movement was started