Turning Point

The Southampton Arts Center was filled with incredible talent, energy and generosity last Thursday — both on stage and in the audience, it was an all-star lineup of the men and (mostly) women who run the region’s nonprofit organizations. Having gathered for an Express Sessions conversation, it turned into a clarion call: Arts organizations, charities helping to feed families, groups focusing on aiding children, or animals, or historic preservation, or community health, or victims of domestic violence — they all had a unified message for the community — “we need help.”

It must be said, the South Fork is a remarkable community, a generous place that supports a veritable panoply of philanthropy. Much as Willie Sutton was credited with saying he robbed banks “because that’s where the money is,” the whole summer colony scene took root here because raising money for charities is easier in the midst of wealth. And in summer, the South Fork is arguably among the wealthiest 200 square miles on the planet.

But that fact overshadows a parallel truth: The South Fork economy is built on men, women and families who are barely getting by. It’s getting harder and harder to live here and work here in any capacity, but those who are fighting the good fight are truly struggling to stay afloat. Many are sinking.

One subset of the nonprofit sector is the food pantries — and they are, quite simply, in crisis. Molly Bishop of Heart of the Hamptons startled the room with a simple statistic: Demand for her food pantry services is up 800 percent from pre-COVID numbers, which is only five years ago. Kitty Merrill, in the audience to represent the East Hampton Food Pantry, noted that the organization went from spending $134,000 in 2021 to $320,000 just two years later — reflecting both a rising demand and soaring grocery prices. Grants have not come close to keeping pace, which makes fundraising ever more essential.

But that’s where every nonprofit suffers. Not just food pantries but organizations as varied as ARF, the Bridgehampton Child Care & Recreational Center, and arts organizations like Bay Street Theater in Sag Harbor, Guild Hall in East Hampton, the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, and the venue itself, the Southampton Arts Center — they all count on voluntary donations to survive. And as the community of “locals” is facing escalating financial struggles, the pool of wealthier local residents who make vital fiscal contributions is not growing at a swift enough pace to keep up.

And then there are the summers, when so many nonprofits restock their coffers and hope it will last the rest of the year. Not only are the local charities competing with each other, they often face well-funded charity powerhouses who land on the South Fork once a year, invest in spectacular events and take a massive haul of donations to do good work, but in other places. Of course, many larger organizations also do some of that good work back here on the South Fork, but the proportions pale in comparison to other local organizations that solely serve this community.

Last week’s conversation felt like it has the potential to be a turning point. All of the energy in the room seemed to flow in the same direction, and a few positives may result.

First, there’s no question — there is strength in numbers. Recently, there are templates for local groups working more closely together rather than competing for dollars. The East End Fund for Children and Hamptons Arts Network, for example, demonstrate a path forward: Maybe what is needed is essentially a larger nonprofit with the goal of helping fund individual nonprofits, allowing them to focus more on service and less on fundraising.

Which leads to local government, and the question of what might be done at the municipal level. There was a suggestion of a Community Preservation Fund type of tax to generate reliable income for the nonprofits, which is an ambitious idea but not one to discard without a conversation. Southampton Town, for example, also includes in town code a requirement that outside organizations must have a “local” charitable recipient that benefits from any fundraising events held in the community. But there are limits on how much government can mandate donations, or where they go, so often the token contributions are nowhere near appropriate. Perhaps local towns and villages need to explore making it much more difficult to parachute in and take resources away from a community that desperately needs them, no matter how compelling the reason.

Ultimately, though, it comes down to connecting local donors, both individuals and businesses, to local charities first — and for residents and merchants alike to recognize how essential their support is. It’s also about raising awareness and making it easier for those dollars to be reinvested in the community.

To help connect donors and local charities, and also charities and the people who might need their services, The Express News Group has created a new online resource at 27east.com: a list of all nonprofit organizations, where to reach out for help — and, most important, where to reach out to support them. This holiday season, we also will bring back the Holiday Express, a way for local people to easily donate, with 100 percent of the money going directly to six local food pantries.

This season of giving can be a start, a true turning point. But there is real work to do to make sure these incredible, generous organizations can keep doing the essential work they do.