SARET Charitable Fund gives people in need a hand up
Chana Bernstein is passionate about what she does.
Through her SARET Charitable Fund, which started in August 1985, she helps people facing economic crisis pay for rent, utilities or car repairs. And not just as a one-time donation. People in need stay on Chana's list until all of their needs are met and they are financially secure enough to stand on their own.
Keeping up financially with people in need would be a daunting task in the best of times, but the COVID-19 pandemic has made it even more difficult. Now, Chana and her organization are working to help pay rent to avoid evictions and finding temporary housing for those who have already lost their homes.
"SARET Charitable Fund is facing two races for time to raise money for five families to prevent them from becoming homeless," Chana said in an email. "Each passing day, we realize that we must build up larger resources to be able to assist more people at their time of hardships and need."
Donors can also rest assure that all funds go directly to the people who need it most since there is no charity overhead, making sure their dollars work even harder.
Chana talks about her organization and how readers can help.
Q: What is the SARET Charitable Fund? Give a brief overview of what the organization does and who you serve?
A: We serve families and individuals in DuPage, Kane and Will counties who are facing economic hardships.
Q: Where do the majority of your donations come from?
A: They come from monthly supporters and from three family foundations that assist us each year with a grant of $5,000, sometimes more. We now plan to apply for larger grants from new places, as the need for more aid is a must.
Q: How many people in a year do you serve?
A: We serve, on average, 300 families a year.
Q: What are some of your programs?
A: We have two separate funds: The General Aid Fund and the Barbara Brent Disability Fund.
Both provide similar services to the clients. Our clients need aid with either housing, utilities, car repairs or car donations. We donate cars when we find donors and repair them with a top-notch mechanic who gives us discounts.
The General Aid Fund is for anyone experiencing serious financial challenges. The money helps pay for rent, car repairs, gas to get to job interviews or utilities. Those who earn the least are prioritized.
If we have a smaller monthly budget, we prioritize the disability fund and help only those in the lowest income bracket. That would be under $1,500. Those who earn $2,500 may have to wait for the next cycle, but if they can't catch up we do our best to assist them.
The Disability Aid Fund serves residents with serious ongoing medical conditions such as cancer, heart disease, severe diabetes, Lupus, MS, and other debilitating ailments, as well as people injured in road accidents or at work and the injury requires substantial time off.
We strongly recommend people in this condition begin applying for Social Security disability, and we refer them to a good Social Security lawyer.
While those disabled clients must wait for one to three years for a social security decision, we place them in a monthly aid program where they receive between $300 and $400 a month. We also try to help with gas cards. Our goal is to obtain larger grants to provide larger allocations. We currently have eight families in this situation.
Due to COVID, we tried to accommodate those who missed work for two weeks and could not meet their full rent.
We have a phone hot line, (630) 842-8876, where people call us, we listen to their needs, and design an aid plan.
On average, our disability fund uses about 60%-70% of the budget we get each month, and 30%-40% goes to the general fund, which covers people with low incomes. We average 15-30 families per month.
Our monthly budget averaged $2,500-$5,000 over many years, and between $60,000-$70,000 was dispensed on average per year. Since I had to work a paying job and did not get paid by the charity, we relied on a core of 12 families that sent a check each month varying between $100 and $700.
Q: How can people get involved with your organization?
A: All they have to do is call us, as we need help with families in many parts of the counties we serve. I know people are so busy these days, but finding caring people will be of great help to us.
We can discuss the situation for a family near them and offer suggestions on how to help. If someone is evicted, we need either help to raise funds to pay off landlords or help to move their belongings to storage units.
Q: What else would you like our readers to know?
A: All the other aid groups in DuPage give out a one-time donation per year. The largest group that helps families economically is the St. Vincent DePaul Society, which is run by area Catholic churches. They have volunteers who meet with families and decide how much they can assist them.
The ones we collaborate with are St. James and St. Petronille in Glen Ellyn, St. Thomas and three other churches in Naperville, St. Joseph and St. Mary in Downers Grove.
Several towns have no St. Vincent de Paul Society, and several other churches have had to cut down their aid programs. Other programs offer just a one-time donation.
We, on the other hand, continue to help people for as long as they need it. We do all we can to ensure they can get some form of help from us. If we are out of funds, we put them on the next month's list.
We also work with St. James in Glen Ellyn and St. Thomas in Naperville. They have helped us resolve a financial need if we are short on funds and can't aid with the full amount needed.
Helping people in an economic crisis in DuPage County is a very challenging issue. While Kane County has six living facilities for homeless programs and Will County has one run by Catholic Charities, DuPage County only offers churches for homeless people to sleep through the PADS program.
This makes them have to find rides to and from churches, in all sorts of weather, with little to no money to travel to those locations.
To donate to SARET, pay through Zelle at saret.charitable@gmail.com; visit saret.org; or mail to SARET Charitable Fund, P.O. Box 3440, Glen Ellyn, IL 60138.
SARET Charitable Fund
• To donate to SARET, pay through Zelle at saret.charitable@gmail.com; visit saret.org; or mail to SARET Charitable Fund, P.O. Box 3440, Glen Ellyn, IL 60138.
• If you or someone you know is in need of help, call the SARET hotline at (630) 842-8876.
• For more information, visit