Salvation Army introduces new online campaign to drive donations

The Northeast Florida Chapter of the Salvation Army is continuing to ask for the community's support with donations for their holiday fundraiser. They have introduced a new online campaign in hopes of reaching a larger audience and driving donations.

“Text to Give, you can go to SalvationArmy.org and go through the prompts it will give you there and you’ll find a way to give to your location Salvation Army by ZIP code -- and that money goes right to your local community,” Maj. Bert Tanner said. He is the area commander for the Northeast Florida Chapter.

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Tanner said they are below their goal for holiday donations and attribute a portion of the decline to online shopping. They are continuing to raise donations in hopes of supporting hundreds of our local residents in need.

“People aren’t in the store as they have been in years past and they don’t carry cash which is a problem too,” Tanner said. “So we look to people to not only put money into our kettles but we appreciate those mail-in checks and we appreciate the online giving as well.”

The Salvation Army Downtown locations will be hosting a Christmas Lunch at 11 a.m. Tuesday. Tanner said the community can continue to donate during this time.

“We’ll have a lot of people that are displaced, don’t have a place to go Christmas dinner," Tanner said. “A lot of them will be alone, don’t have a place to go. So we’re looking for a good crowd tomorrow and just sharing the Christmas spirit.”

Tanner said they will be testing new credit card machine at each red kettle in the coming year.

“We hope to have some systems in place which allow people to give more at our kettle locations with credit cards,” Tanner said. “We hope to have some apparatus to do that, and we’re looking forward to putting that on the streets next year.”

Cox Media Group