Georgetown—In response to a dip in philanthropic gifts for the 2007-2008 fiscal year, Georgetown College recently announced the termination of several staff positions at the school.

Nine full-time employees and one part-time employee have been let go according to Jim Allison, Georgetown’s associate vice president for institutional advancement. Three full-time staff positions also were reduced to part-time status. In addition, the school will not seek to fill four full-time and two part-time positions that remain open, Allison noted. The cuts affected staff members in several departments, including academics, administration and athletics. Faculty positions were not affected.

Insisting that Georgetown College is “financially stable,” Allison pointed out that the staff cuts will help the school in the long run.

“What we are doing here is making some adjustments that better position us for the future,” he said, “recognizing that some of the philanthropy has not come up to the levels that we had hoped it would in the past year. … It’s more about the future than it is about the past.”

Allison speculated that the drop in donations to Georgetown was a result of the slumping economy and that several donors on which the school depended simply were unable to contribute.

“As we drew to the end of our fiscal year, some of the gifts that we expected to come through did not because some of our donors had been impacted by this downturn in the economy,” he noted.

That shortage of gifts directly affected Georgetown’s operating budget, prompting the staff cuts as a way to ease the school’s stretched finances.

In addition, Allison said that Georgetown has adjusted its fundraising goal for the 2008-2009 fiscal year—which began July 1—from $4 million to $2.1 million. “The objective here is to put our donors into a position of being able to give to projects, give to programs, things that they support other than just … paying for the utilities,” he explained.

Among the Baptist colleges in Kentucky, Georgetown appears to be the exception. Four other schools—Campbellsville University, Clear Creek Baptist Bible College, University of the Cumberlands and Mid-Continent University—all reported that philanthropic giving has remained steady or exceeded expectations in the past year.

“These are hard economic times. It is hard to raise money but it doesn’t seem to have affected us,” Clear Creek President Donnie Fox said. “We haven’t seen a big increase (in giving), but we haven’t seen a major decrease either. We’re basically holding steady.”

University of the Cumberlands’ President James Taylor said the Williamsburg institution typically puts $5 million of its approximately $12 million in annual gifts toward its operating budget.

Taylor said the school has yet to feel harsh effects from the economic downturn but suggested that eventually it will as more of donors’ discretionary income goes toward everyday needs such as gasoline and food.

Benji Kelly, vice president for development at Campbellsville University, said the school experienced a decrease in giving among “lower-end donations” in amounts of $25, $50 and $100. Still, that trend has not effected a significant change in total giving, he noted.

Robert Imhoff, president of Mid-Continent University, explained that the Mayfield school recently wrapped up its “best year ever,” finishing $2.8 million ahead of budget for the 2007-2008 fiscal year.

He added, however, that Mid-Continent relies more upon students’ tuition than philanthropic gifts to survive. Imhoff also said he feels the success of the university is not tied to finances.

“I don’t believe the economy has anything to do with equipping the saints,” he noted. “The Lord’s going to do what the Lord’s going to do and … anything that would come against the Lord’s work better watch out.”