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Kara Williams
Freelance Writer |
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Mountain Parent Lending a Helping Hand By Kara Williams What happens when a trip to the ER and resulting medical bills mean you’re short on grocery money this month? Or your car breaks down and you can’t get to the job that helps support an extended family? Or your apartment’s been sold and you have to move, but it’s nearly impossible to scrape together first and last month’s rent, plus a security deposit? If you’re already living paycheck to paycheck, such a situation might send you spiraling downward into a financial crisis. But thanks to a relatively new nonprofit organization, there is a way for valley residents to get cash loans in emergent times of need and prevent creditors from calling. DonorDirect’s “Tide Me Over” Lending Fund makes one-time, zero-interest “crisis prevention” loans totaling no more than $1,000. Applicants undergo credit checks and agree to pay back the loan within 24 months. DonorDirect sends payments directly to such providers as the recipient’s landlord, mortgage company, car mechanic, or doctor’s office. “This program is for people like you or me, who might find themselves in some crazy, unforeseen predicament. It could be being hit by a car, being diagnosed with cancer, needing steel-toe boots to start a better-paying job,” says co-founder and Board President Holly Tullar, mother of three children, ages 4 to 7. “If it’s a medical condition, often disability doesn’t pay for three or four months. If there is no savings, after a month or so there’s no money for food or rent. We literally ‘tide them over’ until things get back in order.” “Tide Me Over” Lending Fund Director and board member Alyssa Genshaft, mother of a three-month-old baby, notes that loans are not for people in “dire debt”; credit reports are carefully reviewed to ensure recipients don’t have any (or many) past-due bills. Other local nonprofit organizations refer potential loan recipients to DonorDirect. A team of three board members reviews a written application (where applicants detail why they need an emergency loan), credit report, and feedback from references. If an applicant is approved, he or she signs a promissory note, agreeing to make monthly payments. Usually, checks can be sent to housing, food or health-care providers within a few days. For every City Market Value Card number the recipient adds to DonorDirect’s list, $10 is deducted from the total amount of the loan (see box below). In a little over two years, from June 2003 to mid-September 2005, Donor Direct made 64 loans totaling $41,577 benefiting 80 children, 57 women and 29 men in the Roaring Fork Valley. Recipients are grateful, says Genshaft. “They are very appreciative, and they understand how important it is to repay the loan so that money can help someone else.” That’s the beauty of DonorDirect, says Tullar. “It’s not just a handout. The monies go ‘round and ‘round in the valley to lots of other families. When someone donates to DonorDirect, their gift circulates over and over.” Tullar and her mother Bartlett (one name only) founded DonorDirect in 2002 in an effort to prevent some of the need for taxpayer-supported government assistance. Says Bartlett, quoting an 1895 poem written by Joseph Malins, “We are the fence at the edge of the cliff, rather than the ambulance down in the valley.” Tullar adds, “We’re helping our recipients avoid the trenches and move foreward. After they regain their balance, hopefully they’ll go on to help someone else in some way in the future.” For more information, visit www.donordirect.net. How you can help
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