By Ronald Lee
Member, St. Joseph Conference of St. Vincent de Paul
I am sure you receive frequent requests for charitable donations, including quite a few from Catholic organizations. So, what is special about the Society of St. Vincent de Paul? Why should you give our cause your attention?
The volunteers who do the work of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul in the Lincoln Diocese – we call ourselves “Vincentians” – go out in pairs to meet and see how they can help those who call into the St. Vincent de Paul Helpline (402-435-7968). We are in the emergency-services business, helping people who face eviction, are about to have their utilities turned off, are without food, are homeless, and are facing various other difficulties.
First, every dollar that is donated to a St. Vincent de Paul parish conference goes to help the poor. Not one cent goes for administrative overhead. Every dollar goes to pay a utility bill, help with rent, purchase necessary household items, buy medications, or underwrite some other essential need. How can we do this? There are three reasons. First, at our parish conference meetings, we pass around a “black bag” and the members put in a few dollars. This money is used to pay for the small expenses a conference might incur (mailings, stamps, paper, etc.). No money from donor contributions ever goes to pay these costs.
Second, years ago, St. Vincent de Paul ran a thrift store at 19th and R streets in Lincoln. Assurity Insurance decided to build its headquarters in downtown Lincoln, and our thrift store was located on the last piece of property Assurity needed for the project. As a result, with the transaction we were able to create an investment account that generated enough income to pay for the expenses of the diocesan council (the larger administrative unit made up of all the conferences). These expenses include the employment of a person who oversees our Helpline, the salary of a part-time bookkeeper, the costs of QuickBooks and the maintenance of our database, the rent on the location of our call center, and payments for accounting and legal services.
Third, we are overwhelmingly a volunteer organization. Other than our call center director and a bookkeeper, we have no labor costs. Vincentians work for free.
What distinguishes our ministry from the work of other charities? St. Vincent de Paul has six unique qualities.
We visit everyone we serve. Our clients do not come to us; we go to them. We sit in their homes and listen to them tell us about their situation and what we can do to help. You might think the Department of Health and Human Services sends social workers to visit those in need, but it does not. Most of the time, folks in need cannot even go and visit social workers in their office. Most interactions are now online.
We speak with everyone who reaches out for help. All requests are answered live over the telephone. We then triage the calls and prioritize those clients in the direst circumstances. Even if we cannot help that day, we offer suggestions on where else they can seek help and encourage them to call back the next day, when their request might land on the priority list. This is far from the typical way other social service organizations operate.
When we offer aid, we do so quickly. Our clients are visited within 24 hours of the time they call. If we decide to help, we usually can do it the next day after the visit (obviously weekends, problems getting a hold of landlords, etc. may take a little longer). Making clients wait a week or two for help is counterproductive. Waiting incurs all kinds of additional costs – charges to reconnect utilities and fees for late rent payments, for instance. We do not believe that any charity works more rapidly than St. Vincent de Paul.
We also work more quickly because we are far less bureaucratic. Our clients do not fill out forms; they do not have to fit into a regulatory pigeonhole to get help. The home visit team will decide if the case is worthy of assistance. We have guidelines, but they are broad. If someone needs steel-toed work boots for a new job, we will purchase them. If someone needs an auto repair to get a child back and forth for treatment at Children’s Hospital in Omaha, we will get the car fixed. If a client is homeless and needs transportation to return to family in another state, we will buy a ticket and put that person on the bus. Most other charities – often because they accept government money – are burdened by regulations that limit their flexibility.
We help those in our local community. Almost all donated dollars, apart from an occasional contribution to a St. Vincent de Paul national disaster fund (e.g., Hurricane Katrina relief efforts in New Orleans), go to help those in the local community. We help our neighbors.
We do not discriminate against anyone. We help those of all religions or no religion; we do not ask about citizenship status (undocumented children need food and shelter, too); we help those getting out of prison, getting off drugs, and struggling with mental health issues. The Good Samaritan did not scrutinize the background of the stranger who lay wounded on the road to Jericho.
Presently, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul is limited to the City of Lincoln and two surrounding communities (Beatrice and Seward). We hope to expand our footprint because the Vincentian model of charity is especially well suited to serving struggling families in smaller towns. We will keep you up to date on the establishment of new conferences.
If you have a few extra dollars to help the less fortunate, please consider donating to our parish conferences. You can go to the St. Vincent de Paul website (https://www.lincolnsvdpcouncil.org) and hit the “Donate” button, or you can donate directly to a particular parish conference: St. Joseph in Beatrice, Blessed Sacrament, Cathedral of the Risen Christ, Cristo Rey, North American Martyrs, St. John, St. Joseph, St. Michael, St. Patrick, St. Peter or St. Teresa in Lincoln, or St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Seward.
Also, if you reside in one of these parishes, please prayerfully consider becoming a Vincentian volunteer. I promise that you will find the work life-changing.
