Pattye Benson

The following comment just came in from Berwyn firefighter Mike Baskin in regards to fire company fundraising. Although I posted this comment with the appropriate blog posting, I think Mike’s comments deserve more attention. Please take the time to review Mike’s thorough examination of this local fire company’s fundraising efforts. Remember, all this fundraising is in addition to fighting fires!

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I can further add information about Berwyn’s Fund raising. It is important that people know as much information as they can about the fire companies and what they do.
I served as fund raising coordinator at Berwyn for 5 years from 2001 – 2006. It was some of the most frustrating years of my life…I lost far too much hair on my head those years.
Frustrations:
1) Motivating volunteers who already give hundreds of hour to training and running calls to put in time to fund raise. Fund raising is not why they joined.
2) Fund raising is not as easy as it sounds. During my time as coordinator, I probably had 200 conversations with local residents who stated they don’t donate because they pay taxes. When they are advised how little of their taxes go to the fire companies, they feel that it still should not be their responsibility to have to pay more money on their own. It’s a losing battle.
3) I was often told that we need to do a better job of getting our message out there. Every fund raising letter that was sent out (2 times per year per household) had the breakdown of where our funding comes from and the importance of the funding. How many people do you think open this letter? How many people do you think treat it as junk mail and put it right in the trash?
4) Businesses… We have our few reliable, local, mom & pop business that contribute regularly each year (and a few others). But for the most part, the larger businesses are too busy, too difficult to contact the right person without weeks of games, or are often not headquartered in our area. Getting money out of businesses is a full time job. The small shops who struggle to stay in business donate, but the big boys won’t play. We appreciate what we receive by our businesses, as it is such a small number, every dollar counts.
5) I personally spent over a thousand hours over 3 years putting together the revitalization of the Berwyn Fair. We did 2 years, Very Few Came.
The Horse show was too expensive to hold it there, we weren’t welcomed anywhere else. We had trouble finding ride companies to do it based on poor attendance.
6) If people are hurting for money, they won’t donate, and that is simple arithmetic.

As far as statistics: (note: this is Berwyn numbers only)
In 2008
Fire Fund drive (10,000 residents) = approx 25% return
EMS Fund Drive (same 10,000 residents later in the year) = approx 25% return
*overall: approximately 32% of 10,000 residents donated once, therefore some residents donated twice. But that means 68% of residents do not donate at all.
Business Drive (2200 businesses) = 5% return, therefore 95% of business do not donate.

2009 Numbers are slightly lower, probably to the tune of 8-10%, but final numbers are not in and some people wait until the end of December (tax time).

The fire company has anticipated another decrease for 2010.

I stepped down as fund raising chair after 5 years because I grew tired of the frustrations noted above. Fund raising at many non-profit organizations is an employed position. Berwyn Fire Co raises over $200,000 of money on our own. It is the equivilant of a part time job by itself to coordinate that, but it’s being done by volunteers. To do more would be a lot to ask, especially at a time when so many are out of work or on fixed incomes…. the money is harder to ask for and receive.

A bit more about me… (because I feel as though the interpersonal aspects of the volunteer world get lost very easy)
I have been a member of Berwyn Fire Co for 13 years as a Fire Police Officer & EMT. I have logged over 700 hours of formal certification training in my time. I Have served three three-year terms as Captain of the Fire Police (which also holds a Board of Director’s seat). So therefore I have been a Board of Director for 9 years. I was recently re-elected to another 2 year term which begins January 7th. In my younger days, I averaged 300-400 Fire calls per year and another 300-400 ambulance calls per year… In the last 4 or 5 years I have significantly grown a business from scratch that I stated as a young businessman out of college 8 years ago. So these days, I run closer to 200 fire calls and 100 Ambulance calls. In my time at the fire company, I have served my community well with a variety of plaques on my wall, which have minimal amount of value in comparison to the lives I have helped save and protect.

I am not unique. The Berwyn Fire Company has many many members who each have their own list of accomplishments and values they add to the table. We are filled with a variety of people from CEO’s, Chemists, Police Officers, Architects, Mechanics, and the list goes on.

Thanks for your time, and considerations on this matter. Politics aside, if this reaches people so they learn more, it did it’s job today.

Respectfully,
Mike Baskin

I just received the following open letter to the township from a Board member of the Paoli Fire Company with a request to post. The letter is well-written and like Berwyn and Radnor fire companies speaks to the real need to reinstate the contribution cut proposed in Tredyffrin’s draft 2010 budget. Please take the time to read the letter.

December 7, 2009

Dear Tredyffrin Resident,

The Paoli Fire Company supports a Tredyffrin Township budget which does not include the proposed 5% reduction in capital and operating support for the localfire companies serving Tredyffrin Township.

Local fire and emergency services are provided to Tredyffrin and Easttown Townships by the Berwyn, Paoli, and Radnor Fire Companies. The majority ofthe townships’ territory is serviced by the Berwyn and Paoli Fire Companies.

The Paoli Fire Company’s annual operating budget is approximately $1.6 Million. We raise about 80% of that money primarily through our own fundraising efforts and by billing insurance companies for ambulance calls. Approximately $88K or 5.5% of our annual operating budget is paid for by contributions from Tredyffrin Township. For the past two years, we have received a capital contribution from Tredyffrin totaling $33K per year. Our fire engines, support vehicles, and rescue equipment cost approximately $3 million, and we follow a disciplined long range capital plan to replace them as they reach the end of their useful life. We pay for the replacement of those vehicles from our own savings, state funds, state loans, and whatever capital funds are provided by the townships.

For 2010, Eastlown Township decided to maintain the level of funding (both operating and capital) for the Berwyn and Paoli Fire Companies at the 2009 level. Tredyffrin Township has preliminarily approved a budget that will reduce its township contribution to our operating and capital budgets by 5% compared to 2009 funding levels. While this is a relatively small amount of money in the Township’s total budget, it is significant to us and we feel it is a mistake for the township to move down this path because every dollar is vital to our volunteer company and it sets a precedent that may be hard to reverse in future years.

The number of fire and emergency services apparatus housed at the Paoli and Berwyn fire departments has been deemed “adequate” to handle fire services in Tredyffrin and Eastlown by an independent consultant and the Insurance Services Organization (ISO). Any change in this status would change the township’s ISO rating and possibly the insurance rates throughout the township.

The term ‘share the pain’ has been used when explaining the cuts in Tredyffrin. While we understand and acknowledge this sentiment, the Board of Supervisors and community must realize that the level of township support we receive is quite low when compared with our total financial needs. We believe that more needs to be done to support the volunteer and paid professionals who are accountable to the community everyday. In 2008, we responded over 1,600 times in performing the mission we were founded to fulfill in 1909.

Two other sources of funding have been reduced this year as well. The funding we receive from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania for our Relief Association dropped 10% from 2009. These funds are restricted to safety and training related items and have a very limited use to the general operation of the fire company. At the same time, our fund drive numbers (voluntary contributions from citizens and businesses we serve) are lower in 2009 than 2008. We expect that they will also be lower in 2010 than in 2009. Along with the reduction in reimbursement for ambulance service the pressure to operate with a budget that is declining in revenue and increasing in cost continues to grow.

We ask that Tredyffrin maintain our 2010 funding at the 2009 level. We provide a monthly financial activity report to Tredyffrin Township to improve our transparency and to put a cost on the service we provide to the citizens.

Regardless of the final decision of the Board, our organization is committed to working with our elected officials and community to resolve the longstanding issue of how to fund emergency services with a dedicated funding stream.

We encourage you to reach out to members of the Tredyffrin Board of Supervisors to let them know your view on this critical public safety funding issue. You can email them at bos@tredyffrin.org or attend the Tredyffrin Township Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday, December 21, 2009 at 7:30 p.m. to voice your concerns directly to the Supervisors.

You can also sign an ePetition in support of the three fire companies that service Tredyffrin. The address is http://tredto.epetitions.net/. We hope you will support us and ask that Fire/EMS funding for the Berwyn Fire Company, Paoli Fire Company, and Radnor Fire Company be reinstated to 2009 levels.

Sincerely,

The Members of the Paoli Fire Company