Fundraising campaigns to offset severe state budget cuts have generated a wave of good will and community support for certain programs in the short term but could have unintended consequences, according to public policy experts and program officials.

One concern is a possible shift toward an "American Idol"-style system of public funding that rewards popularity over merit. On the flip side, as viewers of the Fox television show know all too well, crowd favorites sometimes lose out because fans assume they are "safe."

The same thing could happen to popular government programs if lawmakers reduce funding because supporters have shown a willingness to cover budget shortfalls out of their own pockets.

"That's certainly a concern because realistically, we cannot sustain this type of fundraising year after year," said Keith Amemiya, executive director of the Hawaii High School Athletic Association, which is spearheading the Save Our Sports campaign that raised $1.2 million in less than three months.

A Downtown hoolaulea last week alone raised more than $100,000 and pushed the campaign over its goal.

"In many ways, people are donating with the view that this is a one-time crisis that, hopefully, will be fixed soon," Amemiya said.

Money collected through the SOS Fund will be turned over to the state Department of Education for distribution to 55 public high school athletic departments, which have suffered a 36 percent budget cut this year.

Amemiya said he was somewhat surprised by the overwhelming support for the campaign considering the poor economy. On the other hand, Hawaii residents are big high school sports fans, he said.

"Particularly in Hawaii, everyone has a connection with public high school athletics, even those who attend private school, because their friends play for public schools and they live near a public school, and the kids you played youth sports with are now playing at public schools," he said.

BIGGEST NEED?

There are good and bad sides to grass-roots fundraising for specific government services, according to professor Susan Chandler, head of the University of Hawaii's Public Policy Center at Mänoa.

"The good part is that it does galvanize the community when they see that there's a need that's not met," she said. "The community is saying, 'We need to find a local solution and a relevant solution,' instead of 'Why doesn't the government fix this?' "

The bad includes lack of a coordinated plan to ensure the community's giving pool is thoughtfully disbursed.

"On one hand, it can be good that the community's being responsive. On the other hand, what I worry about is where is the planning," Chandler said.

"It does look piecemeal, and is it actually responding to the really important needs or just the needs that some people find more popular than others? I find it amazing the community came up with $1 million for school sports — not music, not math. I know it's extremely popular but is that the biggest need?"

The state Public Library System, also part of the DOE, is the beneficiary of two fundraising campaigns that so far have collected more than $186,000 in public donations to stave off temporary or permanent library closures due to budget cuts.

The system's "Keep Your Library Open!" campaign has set a $3 million goal to make up for funding losses in the current fiscal year. At last count, $91,218 had been received, with donors able to earmark their money for specific libraries.

All of the public libraries have received some donations, but some more than others, said state Librarian Richard Burns.

"That's a concern," he said. "But that's one of the areas the Friends campaign can help us out with."

The Friend of the Library of Hawaii's "Keep the Doors Open!" drive has raised $95,061 so far. The fundraising initiative is separate from the group's ongoing effort to collect donations for library programs not otherwise included in the system's operating budget.

While library officials are gratified at the amount of public support generated by the two campaigns, Burns said, the public library system shouldn't have to rely so heavily on donations.

"We're trying to make the point that in these unusual times, this is definitely not the way the state of Hawaii should be funding the public library system. It's the responsibility of the Legislature to appropriate funding," he said.

MANY NEEDS

Noting the success of the Save Our Sports campaign, Burns and others say they are wary of the potential for "donor fatigue."

"We're glad that they are doing well, and that's definitely the direction we want to go in. At the same time, we realize that we just had the tsunami in Sämoa and problems in the Philippines," Burns said. "These are bad times for a lot of people. We're hanging in there and being cognizant of the fact that people are being pulled in a lot of different directions."

Private human service agencies squawked when the state shut down the Department of Health's Healthy Start program in July, but there was little reaction outside the nonprofit community.

Loretta Fuddy, chief of the DOH Family Health Services Division, said no one contacted her agency about mounting a fundraising campaign to save Healthy Start, a nationally recognized child abuse prevention program.

One reason was the daunting amount — $6 million — needed to save the program, Fuddy said. Another was Healthy Start's constituency.

"The difference is, athletics are in every school and libraries apply to everyone. This is for a select population and it's hard to make the case," she said.

Christopher Grandy, associate professor at UH-Manoa's public administration program, said it's not surprising that people react "to the things they are most directly interested in and engaged in."

"What it may point up is that there's a need for more information about the different kinds of things being done in the public sector and the impacts the recession and budget constraints are having," he said. "Perhaps if people were aware of programs dealing with child abuse or others sorts of programs and were aware these programs are being decimated, they might say, 'Hey, wait a minute.' They might hold a public concert for these things in addition to high school football."

THE PEOPLE SPEAK

While some may see disparity in fundraising campaigns that support the most popular government services, the efforts can guide lawmakers, according to Gran-dy.

"One way to think about it is that this is the public directly indicating what services they care about, and care about so much they are willing to take money out of their own pocket," he said.

"Lawmakers are in a position of regularly having to choose how they're going to fund different public programs, and they have to make their own assessment of what the public really wants," Grandy said. "The usual method of doing that is to ask people to come down and testify on bills ... This strikes me as being a somewhat different mechanism in response to tough economic times for the public to indicate what it really cares about."

He said a "disturbing" drawback to this approach is that services that target the poor, for example, often aren't able to capture the same kind of attention and widespread support as more mainstream programs, and may be overlooked.

"This can create tension between addressing public needs through a direct democracy approach versus representative democracy," where legislators make funding decisions after detailed study and discussion of difficult issues, Grandy said.

Chandler, who fought her own budget battles as director of the state Department of Human Services, said popularity can cut both ways at the Legislature.

"Folks who have the best P.R. seem to get their funding restored," she said. "And sometimes it's true that legislators will cut a program with a strong constituency because they know (supporters) will get the funding restored or raise the money themselves."

CHECK-OFF BOXES

Fuddy said that although there is no umbrella fund-raising campaign for Healthy Start, individual nonprofit agencies that received money from the program are working on their own to get donations to make up for the loss in funding.

She also noted there already exists a mechanism for people to support child abuse prevention programs in Hawaii, although it's apparently not well known or promoted. A check-off box on state income tax returns allows people to make a $5 donation to the Hawaii Children's Trust Fund. The fund receives $50,000 to $70,000 annually from the check-off donations, Fuddy said.

Donations to the trust fund also can be made through the Hawaii Community Foundation.

Public libraries and other state programs also benefit from check-off boxes on tax returns.

"I think we do need to get more of a community response. We do need to look at private funding streams and dedicated funding streams such as the tax check-off or the tobacco tax and other 'sin' taxes," she said.

"These are very difficult economic times and the community needs to look at creative solutions to fund programs. We need to think out of the box a little bit and not look for government to do it all, nor should we expect the community to do it all. It really takes a collaborative effort."

It's uncertain whether Hawaii will see a growing trend of public donations to prop up struggling government programs.

"If we stay in a period of constrained resources for a while, my guess is this is a phenomenom we're going to continue to see," Grandy said.

NEEDS MAY GROW

Librarian Burns said he expects funding shortfalls to continue into the second year of the state's two-year budget cycle. Because of the uncertainty, no end date has been placed on the "Keep Your Library Open!" campaign.

"That will probably be determined by if the need continues to grow," he said.

Amemiya, at the high school athletic association, is hoping Save Our Sports will not become "a permanent, ongoing fundraising drive."

"All of us are facing an unprecedented financial crunch in Hawaii, so we at high school athletics understand the need to offset some of the cuts and to try to obtain private funding," he said. "However, when the economy improves, we hope that these cuts will be restored not only for athletics but for all aspects of public school education."

Grandy said the public fundraising activities highlight the need for a greater dialogue on state revenue sources and distribution of taxpayer dollars.

"As difficult as it is, this is a really interesting time to think about what we want government to do and what we're really willing to pay for. I would like to see more of our public officials speak candidly to the rest of us about what the choices are," he said.

"It's a huge political problem that is going to raise a lot of hackles, but that's what living in open democratic society is about. If we can't do that in the face of a budget crisis, I don't know that there's a better time to do it."