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Detroit Automakers Cut Giving As They, Too, Need Charity

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By JEFF KAROUB

The Associated Press

Published: January 2, 2009

PONTIAC, Mich. - As a charity that helps homeowners in a pinch, Lighthouse of Oakland County could use every penny it can collect as foreclosures and unemployment rise. But scratched from the 2009 calendar is its biggest fundraiser of the year, a black-tie dinner.

The event usually draws its biggest corporate sponsors. Problem is, they're General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.

The automakers are scaling back their giving to agencies, organizations and programs as they become charity cases themselves. They're bleeding billions as collapsing sales have led to big losses, forcing GM and Chrysler to seek emergency federal loans to survive for a few months.

The auto industry's woes are being felt by nonprofits across the country. Among the scores of recipients nationally are the United Negro College Fund, Nature Conservancy and a women in jazz education and cultural preservation project.

Lighthouse expects corporate support to be down as much as 30 percent in 2009, said John Ziraldo, president and chief executive of the nonprofit that provides emergency services, affordable housing and homeowner education in Detroit's northern suburbs.

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