The Salvation Army kettle collections are way off target this year, Lt. Matt McCluer said on Thursday shortly before bell ringers officially halted their collection drive for the year.

The 2015 goal for kettle donations in Douglas County was $100,000.

But bell ringers collected only about $59,000, McCluer said.

That’s about $30,000 short of the $88,000 that bell ringers collected last year.

“It is bad news,” McCluer said.

Salvation Army volunteer bell ringer Donald Southard, of Lawrence, rings away with a smile on his face in 50-degree weather at the Dillons, 3000 W. Sixth St., on Thursday.

But not as dire as it could be, he said, because the agency has a full year to make up that difference through other fundraising means. It’s too early, he added, to start cutting the budget to make ends meet. The organization uses the money to fund rent and utility assistance programs, to help supplement donations to its food bank, and several other programs designed to help individuals and families in need.

McCluer said The Salvation Army also receives walk-in cash, check and credit card donations, and while the amount of that won’t be known until the end of the Christmas season, which is officially over Jan. 31, he expects that amount could be up some.

“By my estimation we are actually up a little bit (on walk-in donations),” he said. “We run pretty tight as it is. That is why this is the beginning of our fiscal year so we can react and change what we are doing the rest of the year based on Christmas.”

McCluer wasn’t sure why people did not donate as much at the kettles this year. He said sometimes when the weather is nice people don’t think about Christmas as much.

About mid-January, Salvation Army officials will meet to discuss actual numbers and how to make up the deficit through fundraising and marketing.

“The idea is we won’t cut the budget,” he said.

For next year, McCluer said The Salvation Army would re-evaluate the bell-ringing program to improve it. One strategy will be to more aggressively recruit bell ringers, he said, noting that this year was short of ringers compared with some seasons past.