These are lean times for Headquarters Counseling Center, 1419 Mass.

“We’ve seen a significant decrease in donations,” said Wendy Leedy, the center’s part-time development director.

At this time last year, the counseling center’s annual membership drive had raised almost $10,500 from 158 donors. But this year’s drive has stalled at 78 donors and $5,600.

“We’ll be lucky to reach $7,100,” Leedy said.

It’s not yet known how the decrease in funding will affect the center’s services.

“We’re 100 percent committed to being accessible 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” said Headquarters executive director Marcia Epstein. “So if we have to cut something, it would probably be in the area of our children’s services.”

Currently, Headquarters works with area school districts on programs designed to make children more aware of the dangers that accompany walking to school alone, chatting with strangers on the Internet and being home alone after school. It also offers classes on dealing with bullies.

Founded in 1969, Headquarters’ volunteers last year handled 13,063 calls and visits. Callers’ concerns ran the gamut from being lonely (3,220), coping with a sexual assault (248) or child abuse (74), questioning their sexuality (320), to feeling suicidal (418).

Because all calls are confidential and often anonymous, Headquarters does not keep track of caller identities. So not every call necessarily represents a different caller.

Epstein and Leedy said they are convinced the drop in donations is a consequence of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“It’s not something we’ve done,” Leedy said, “because we’re doing pretty much what we were doing last year. We’ve not heard anybody saying our services aren’t needed.”

This year, Headquarters expects to spend about $192,000, including $135,000 in salaries and wages for two full-time and three part-time employees.

Most of Headquarters budget comes from the Kansas University student-fee fund ($44,782) and United Way of Douglas County ($70,758).

In November, United Way of Douglas County announced that it had fallen $64,000 short of its 2001 goal of raising $1.46 million.