Mike Wolanin | The Republic An exterior view of The Salvation Army Corps Community Center in Columbus, Ind., Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2025.
The Salvation Army of Columbus is looking for the community’s help after coming up short in their Christmas Red Kettle fundraising goal.
Against a $245,000 goal, $198,000 was raised by the end of December. Salvation Army Captain and pastor Amy Tompkins is asking for the community’s help to raise the remaining $50,000 by the end of February to fully fund the services and programs planned for 2026.
“The Salvation Army of Columbus serves more than 1,300 families each month through our social service programs. We send children to camp each summer, walk alongside families as they work to break the cycle of poverty and support seniors in our community every day,” Tompkins said. “We cannot do this work without your help. Each year, the needs in our community continue to grow — and so does the need for financial support. Your generosity allows us to continue serving the people of our great Columbus community.”
To raise that money, the Salvation Army is continuing to fundraise. Donations can be mailed to or dropped off to the Salvation Army at 2525 Illinois Ave. in Columbus. Online donations can be made to donate.salvationarmyindiana.org/columbus.
Donations made to the Salvation Army support its food pantry, utility and rent assistance programs, youth camps and the Pathway to Hope program. Low-income seniors are also supported through Booth Manor, which provides housing and enrichment for an oftentimes overlooked population.
“Our programs are vital to our community, but with your support we can reach out goal, continue to bless others and make a lasting difference in the lives of those we serve,” Tompkins said in the release. “Thank you for standing with us. Through your donations, we can reach more individuals and families, meeting critical needs without discrimination, in His name.”
The $245,000 goal was higher than past years due to an increased need for funding and demand for assistance growing. Tompkins said that despite prices coming down and jobs being available, people are still struggling to meet their needs, and the Salvation Army is trying to help them meet those needs. However, without assistance, they cannot continue to do that.
“We are still buying our products to give to people,” Tompkins said. ”People are donating goods to us for us to give out, which helps as well, by donating canned goods or paper products, feminine and baby products always helps as well, but financial assistance is where we need the help right now.”
Tompkins said she’s sure that the higher goal contributed to them coming up short this year, as more people in the community in need means they don’t have as many people who have been able to financially give. A lack of volunteers to ring at their locations also contributed to not meeting their goal, Tompkins said.
“We had on average 11 kettle stands available but only had five bell ringers out at a time on a day, which really hurt us,” Tompkins said. “If we would had been able to man all of those kettle locations, it would have really helped to bring in what we needed, but unfortunately… I think the weather contributed to a lot of that. We had a lot of cold days, rainy days where nobody wanted to stand out in the rain or in the cold.”
To help raise that money, Tompkins said they are going to cut back on some of their services for the time being so they can continue to provide the essential foods and needs of the community. That includes cutting back and slowing down on some of their programs for children and cutting some employee hours.
“This will also cut back on the extras that we buy for the food pantry, so (the) pantry being able to give out more meat or things like that, we’ll have to limit the amount that people are getting until we can help or with electric, utility assistance and rental assistance, we’re having to cut back on that for right now until we can raise the money to support the programs,” Tompkins said. “So instead of being able to help 10 people, we’ll only be able to help five people a month.”
