32 Days of Giving: A Homeless Shelter Sparks a New Holiday Tradition

With the bad economy making it difficult to raise money this year, the Gateway Center in Atlanta turned to one of its loyal supporters for help.

The Atlanta Downtown Improvement District had given $150,000 in 2004 to the homeless shelter for its opening in 2005. But a few months ago the charity asked it for more, to ensure that mothers and their children could stay at the shelter, at a cost of $3,200 per week for bedding and other services.

Wilma Sothern, vice president for marketing at the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District, says the charity told her it was “bursting at the seams with people that need help, especially women and children.”

The improvement district’s board decided to make a $32,000 donation, to last 10 weeks, through the end of the year. The Gateway Center then decided to make the donation a catalyst for a year-end fund-raising campaign it calls “32 Days of Giving.”

Started on November 12, the Gateway GIFT (Generating Involvement in Fundamental Transition) Project gives Atlanta businesses, nonprofit organizations, and individual donors a chance to “adopt” or “own” one of the 32 days for themselves. From now until Christmas Day, they can donate money, enlist employees or others to volunteer, or give much-needed goods, such as toilet paper, bed sheets, pillows and the like. The Gateway Center isn’t just a homeless shelter; it also helps people kick drug and alcohol addictions and acquire skills they need to get jobs.

So far, the Gateway Center has attracted sponsors for 15 of the campaign days, including Tempur-Pedic, local television station WSB-TV, and Edelman, a public-relations firm.

For its part, the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District sponsored the first day of giving and is sending out letters to its supporters to urge them to contribute products that the Gateway Center is lacking and to volunteer. It is also asking companies in the district to support the remaining days of the campaign.

Says Ms. Sothern of the Gateway Center: “They are a vital organization in our community.”