¹ The term “philanthropy” will be used to mean “donating an object … without expectation of any personal return.” See Andrews, F. Emerson, Philanthropic Giving (New York, 1950), 27.Google Scholar

The term “canvasser” will be used to refer to anyone who takes part in organized philanthropic activity, no matter what his position in the campaign.

The term “whirlwind campaign” refers to an intensive short-term campaign to raise money. It is characterized by the careful organization of teams of canvassers to collect the money, the selection of prospective contributors, their cultivation by means of carefully planned publicity, their solicitation over a short period of time—usually a week—daily meetings for reports of canvassers, and the use of skilful tactics to keep up the enthusiasm of public and canvassers alike.

² This study is based on the records of short-term campaigns in Wellsville beginning with the first “whirlwind campaign” in 1909. These records have been supplemented by newspaper accounts of the campaigns, letters from participants in the campaign activity, and many interviews with men and women who have taken leading parts in philanthropy in Wellsville in the period under study. There has also been participant observation of a number of the campaigns. The study is confined to seven types of large, city-wide, short-term campaigns in the fields of education, health, youth, welfare, and war which have taken place in Wellsville from 1909 to 1950.

³ Ward, C. S., The Short Term Building Campaign (New York, 1907).Google Scholar The campaign plan outlined by Ward in this booklet is still much the same as the plan used in current campaigns.

⁴ Ross, Murray, The Y.M.C.A. in Canada (Toronto, 1951), 69–71.Google Scholar It is improbable that the well-established, tradition-bound leaders of the church could have initiated this new type of collective effort, even though they were the leaders of philanthropy at that time.

⁵ The Special Names Committee is composed of influential men whose function is to solicit the largest donors in the community.

⁶ From interviews with leaders of the campaign.

⁷ From material obtained in interviews and various other sources.

⁸ Sources: interviews, and records of campaigns.

⁹ Family Welfare Association, Annual Report, 1920, 8 Google Scholar: “In the face of heavily increasing demands upon the financial resources … it was decided that the FWA could no longer assume any responsibility for cases where the chief problem was that of unemployment. Such an emergency situation should rest primarily with the city, but the city refused the responsibility, and the matter continued in the hands of private agencies.”

¹⁰ Source: interviews and records.

¹¹ The top-ranking men's club in Wellsville.

¹² A low-ranking organization in Wellsville.

¹³ Miller, N., in Gouldner, Alvin W., Studies in Leadership (New York, 1950), 224.Google Scholar Miller found that this is also true of Jewish philanthropy in Lakeport.

¹⁴ In the 1914 Patriotic Fund campaigns the employees of one large railway company donated $12,000 and the employees of a number of other institutions such as the Wellsville Court House and Jail and one local newspaper contributed as groups. Collection boxes were put in many factories and shops.

¹⁵ Newspaper A., Nov. 28, 1922.

¹⁶ Organized labour is already co-operating in organized philanthropy in other cities. There is some indication that there is still mutual suspicion and distrust between labour leaders and the leaders of philanthropy in Wellsville.

¹⁷ In the formation of the Community Chest campaign in 1922 women were given important executive positions, probably owing to the fact that, as the Community Chest was an amalgamation of 27 charitable agencies and many women had held executive positions on the boards of these agencies, they had more control over representation on the campaign executive. From that date, one of the vice-chairmen of Community Chest campaigns has always been a woman.

¹⁸ Information from campaign records.

¹⁹ Blishen, B. R., “A Sociological Study of Three Philanthropic Campaigns” (M.A. thesis. McGill University, 1950).Google Scholar

²⁰ Newspaper A., Sept. 14, 19, 1919.

²¹ “.40 [was given] from a small boy who one day will be a potential subscriber to the Community Chest” (Newspaper A., Nov. 28, 1922). During World War II the pressure on children to participate in many types of philanthropic activity at school increased considerably.

²² Interview with headmistress of a private school.

²³ Various campaign records and newspaper files.

²⁴ Josie, G. and Josie, S., Charitable Donations in Canada (Ottawa, 1949), 27.Google Scholar

²⁵ Andrews, , Philanthropic Giving, 33, 34.Google Scholar

²⁶ The religious benefit of this type of work to the participant was stressed by Ward in his booklet, “This large sacrifice of personal interests is absolutely essential to success, and is the secret of the great spiritual blessing brought to many lives” (The Short Term Building Campaign, 43).

“A deep spiritual undercurrent is necessary to sustain the enthusiasm of these campaigns. Workers quickly feel the need. Beyond question the surest way to develop the spiritual life of men is to give them something positive, strong and aggressive to do for the Kingdom of God …. Among all the enterprises of the Christian church, there is none better adapted to this end than this thorough organization of forces to do what most men consider the impossible—the raising of these large sums of money in an incredibly short time. It has the effect of a great and sane revival—a revolution of practical work. It has resulted in bringing some into the church and many more into continued Christian activity” (Ibid., 11).

²⁷ Those interviewed considered that the appeal to the public must have quite a different slant than the appeal to the business man. In the former case sentiment was still thought to be largely responsible for giving, but it was seldom analysed as being “religious” sentiment. “You will find that with the large majority of people you have to stress the emotional angle. There must be some sort of feeling aroused. That is why we are going after film shorts for our campaign this year. They are really tear jerkers, and we are going to put them on at all the local theatres. Then we are going to have various stunts. I have thought up these things in order to bring the whole thing before the public eye with a bang. You have to do this sort of thing to arouse their interest” (Managing Director of large bank).