What started it all was a conversation over a cup of coffee, between the milkman and a doctor’s wife in 1959.

“I was the head of the United Good Neighbors drive, and she was the head of the Red Cross drive,” said Ernest Biggs, who in those days maintained a dairy route around the island.

“I had a quota that year of $10,000, and she said they’d raised $200, so we decided we had to do something.”

The problem, they decided, was that too much effort was being duplicated.

“The women on the island seemed to be the ones chosen to go door-to-door, but they were doing it half a dozen times a year, and were kind of worn out” Biggs said.

He had heard of a community in Ohio that had combined all of its charity drives into something it referred to as “one call for all.” Biggs thought that concept might work on Bainbridge.

“We got together with the city bigwigs and presented the plan, and everybody thought it was a tremendous idea,” he said. “We called on most of the merchants on Winslow Way, and they were very receptive, so we actually started the Bainbridge Foundation in 1960 or 1961.”

For years, the foundation has served as the principal fund-raising vehicle for most if not all of Bainbridge’s non-profit organizations.

The “One Call For All” drive with its familiar red envelopes still yields much of the money for many of the island’s burgeoning non-profits. But an ominous trend concerns the foundation’s board of directors.

That trend is a significant drop in the number of donors over the past three years – from an all-time high of 1,637 two years ago to 1,562 the next year then to 1,474 for the year that ended Aug. 31.

And while the amount of money raised has increased significantly during that period – from $472,796 to $508,710 to $548,459 in the most recent year – there are fears that at some point, declining participation will mean declining yields.

“A broad donor base is the heart and soul of what the Bainbridge Foundation is all about,” treasurer Ron Williamson said. “Some of our long-time supporters have retired and set up trusts, and we get a few donations in the $8,000 to $10,000 range, but a large percentage of the island ignores the Foundation.”

Board member Heidi Stamm, a marketer, believes education is the key. The board is starting what she calls “a fairly aggressive public involvement plan” aimed principally at island newcomers.

“New people may not understand the tradition,” Stamm said. “I believe if they open the envelope and read the information inside, they will be ready and anxious to give.”

Challenges

The island is changing into a big place, she said, and the foundation needs to change with it. That includes introduction of a web site to introduce people to the member agencies, and the capacity to accept pledges on line.

Foundation President Joan Lindall Holcomb agrees that education is the key.

“This is very much of a home-grown organization, and we haven’t told our story well enough to newcomers,” she said.

While the foundation drive may have some similarities to the more familiar United Way model, there are key differences, she noted, especially the ability of the donor to designate the recipient of his or her donations.

“We don’t make the judgment. The people have to decide,” she said. “It’s a wonderful picture of community, but people aren’t used to this approach.”

Early returns from the more aggressive approach are encouraging, said board member Robert Leigh, who retired recently as a senior vice president with Bon Marche.

“We’ve only had one week worth of response, and it’s too soon to tell much yet, but the first week is better than in past years.”

And that’s particularly striking this year, when so much of the community’s concern, like that of the nation, has been directed to New York and Washington.

Stamm says the “one call for all” tradition – a united, community-wide effort to support the island’s non-profit agencies – is an integral part of what makes Bainbridge unique.

“I can’t think of another community like ours, and the non-profits contribute so much to our quality of life,” she said.

“But a community like ours doesn’t just happen. It takes a lot of work.”