By Caroline Preston and Christopher Thompson

Nearly two-thirds of charities polled by The Chronicle in the past week say that this November and December have been as bad or worse for fund raising as last holiday season, when the recession had already begun to dampen giving.

Thirty-two percent reported declines of 10 percent or more. Bethlehem Haven, a women's shelter in Pittsburgh, for example, reports that giving has been down by 25 to 30 percent all year and that responses to its year-end annual appeal show few signs of an improvement.

"People are giving $75 instead of $100," says Caroline Woodward, director of development and public relations. The charity has been forced to cut staff positions to meet a budget deficit of $300,000.

It's not just smaller organizations that are suffering. In fact, fund raising at the very largest groups - those with budgets of $100-million or more - seem to be faring the worst this holiday season, according to the survey. Sixty-four percent of those groups reported that they were raising less this November and December than in the same period last year, and 36 percent said those declines were 10 percent or greater.

But a minority of groups in the survey said these final weeks of 2009 have been good to them. Thirty-four percent reported receiving more since November than they did during the same period in 2008, and 19.7 percent reported increases of 10 percent or more.

Infant Crisis Services, in Oklahoma City, has received 53 percent more since November 1, $377,000 compared with $176,000 in the same six weeks of 2008. Anne Clouse, director of development, credits the charity's decision to hire a company to create its direct mail, an October luncheon for existing and potential donors, an expanded e-mail list, and free advertising from corporate sponsors.

"We took the tactic of being more deliberative about our fund-raising game," she says. "We felt like if we were going to make it through, we had to be the best at everything."

Most Causes Suffer

End-of-year giving is lagging behind at all causes except religion. More than 61 percent of religious charities said they were doing better so far this year, while 7.7 percent said they were doing the same and 30.8 percent reported doing worse.

More than 50 percent of advocacy groups, arts organizations, international charities, and social-service groups told The Chronicle that their giving was down this November and December compared with the same period in 2008.

The survey collected information from a wide range of organizations. Education groups (25.6), social-service organizations (18.2 percent), and health charities (13.7 percent) made up the largest number of respondents, followed by arts and environmental organizations. Participants filled in an online survey that asked them brief questions about how they were faring.

Roughly a quarter of the charities that participated had budgets of less than $1-million, 54.6 percent had between $1-million and $25-million, and 21.1 percent had more than $25-million.

Ready to Move On

No matter their mission or and size, most charities will likely be happy to close the book on this year.

Nearly 54 percent of those polled said they expected to raise less this year than last, hardly a banner year for fund raising. According to Giving USA, charitable donations fell 5.7 percent last year, the steepest decline it has ever recorded in more than 50 years of collecting such data.

Nearly a quarter of the organizations in The Chronicle's poll anticipated a drop of at least 10 percent.

Roughly 16 percent said they anticipated that giving would remain the same, however, while 30.1 expected an increase. About half of that group (15.5 percent) said the increase would be 10 percent or greater.

C. Richard Mattingly, chief operating officer at the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, says his group had to cut medical programs this year for the first time in its 54-year history because giving has been down by 15 percent.

"I'm extraordinarily proud and grateful for the way that everyone has teamed up and worked together through this time," he says. "But we're all ready for that page to be turned and to move on to 2010."