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philanthropy
Florida's Best, Worst Charities
Some are better than others at keeping expenses in check. Here's a statewide roundup.
Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida — Orlando
| Revenue | $27,626,683 | |
| Expenses | $27,221,790 | |
| Program expenses | $26,453,562 | 97.2% |
| Administrative expenses | $291,947 | 1.1% |
| Fund-raising expenses | $476,281 | 1.7% |
| Fund-raising efficiency: 1 cent is spent in fund raising for every $1 raised. |
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High food and fuel prices and Florida’s real estate bust have put new demands on food banks. “Outside of disaster relief times, I’ve never seen anything like it,” says David Krepcho, president and CEO of the 25-year-old food bank, which gives assistance to about 54,000 people a week through 450 partner agencies in six counties.
 “We’re kind of hitting a glass ceiling on donated products.” — David Krepcho, president and CEO of Second Harvest Food Bank of Central Florida [Photo: Jeffrey Camp] |
Last year, the food bank distributed 17 million pounds of food.
The value of donated food and non-food grocery items makes up about 85% of the food bank’s revenue each year. Corporate partnerships with General Mills, Kraft Foods, Disney, Darden Restaurants, CVS, Walgreens, Target, Wal-Mart and others have helped the food bank keep fund-raising costs to just 1.7% of expenses.
While companies continue to be supportive, Krepcho says that the economic climate today means that less surplus food is available because companies are carrying less inventory.
So Krepcho is working on alternative ways to bolster supply as well as ways to help mitigate the need. On the supply side, he has set up pilot programs with Publix and Albertsons to provide unsold fresh produce, deli and bakery items, even though collections must be done store by store. On the needs side, this summer four “mobile outreach specialists” armed with wireless laptops will help people sign up for food stamps and other social programs such as Medicaid and KidCare. The program’s $250,000 cost will be paid by a private donor whom Krepcho declined to identify. Krepcho is trying to set up a 12-week program to train out-of-work clients for jobs in the restaurant business.
For the 15% of the food bank’s revenue that comes from cash contributions, Krepcho relies on a quarterly newsletter, direct mail, online donations and a couple of fund-raising events. In particular, he points to the “Feeding Hope” breakfast started last year. It attracted 300 people and raised $267,000.
Business Beat - Week of May 3rd
