Please read: Tight Times Even Tighter for Charities

[Christian30]

As we discuss the various bailouts, as a nonprofit fundraiser, this article is terrifying. While the gov't is bailing out companies that are laying off thousands of workers, they are also reducing support for social service charities thereby hindering our ability to serve the displaced.

Tight Times Even Tighter for Charities
By M. P. DUNLEAVEY

IF you’ve been chewing your nails, wondering what the next few months have in store for you, imagine what the mood is like for charities and nonprofit groups, which depend on the kindness of strangers to keep sending money their way.

“For the last 45 days we have not had a daily deposit,” said Mark Holleran, chief executive of Central Arizona Shelter Services, an organization of three homeless shelters in Phoenix. “That may not sound like a lot, but we always had some money coming in every day. I’ve been here 13 years and I’ve never seen this.”

Mr. Holleran describes the drop in small, daily donations as one of the many “little road signs” that he is seeing right now, signaling trouble ahead.

Another, he said, was when a neighboring charity, which had long donated food to his shelters, was forced to start charging them for it. “Their donations are down too, and they’re getting less in-kind donations,” he said.

Mr. Holleran used the term that seems to be on everyone’s lips these days: “It’s a perfect storm.” But few other phrases could do justice to the unfortunate synchronicity of so much bad financial news, especially in the nonprofit sector.

While the rest of us, or many of us, are still in a holding pattern with regard to our own finances (how bad is it going to get?), the fallout from the financial crisis is striking nonprofit groups and charities fast and hard. As much as people might like to sit still until their own finances feel stable again, many nonprofit agencies need additional support now.

Donations to charities grew about 4.5 percent in the 2007 fiscal year (which ended in July for most groups), to what sounds like a reassuring $72.5 billion. The data is from an annual survey of the 400 charities that raise the most from private sources, done by The Chronicle of Philanthropy, a biweekly publication that covers the nonprofit sector.

But that number doesn’t reflect the sudden downturn in donations these last few months, as large financial institutions (and historically generous donors) have collapsed, dozens of states have announced huge budget deficits, many municipalities are cutting their support of social service agencies — and some nonprofit agencies are facing a drop in individual contributions.

And all of this is occurring as demand for many groups’ services is growing sharply.

Because the end of the year is when nonprofit groups typically expect a jump in contributions — and because that surge is so suddenly and completely in question — program administrators say they are scrambling to keep up.

“We have seen an increased need from people who are facing foreclosure, job loss and decreased work hours,” the Rev. Michael M. Boland, chief executive of Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, said in an e-mail message. “We are seeing a lot of renters forced out of apartments because the owners were foreclosed upon, and we’ve seen an increase in the number of requests for our emergency services, which include food pantries and hot dinners for the hungry and homeless,” he said.

AT a food pantry in Cicero, Ill., Father Boland said, 150 new families needed assistance in August, while 250 more requested help in September. “The increases are astonishing,” he said.

Mr. Holleran of Central Arizona Shelter Services said that a new population was seeking help. “We’re up about 20 percent, as far as demand goes,” he said, “but these are people who have never, ever been in a homeless environment, the John Q. Public types, people who have lost their businesses, a lot of disabled and elderly.”

Historically, in periods of financial stress Americans haven’t cut back all that much on giving. “Even during recessionary times, Americans have always tended to give about 2 percent of their discretionary income to charity,” said Robert F. Sharpe Jr., president of the Sharpe Group in Memphis, a financial consulting firm for nonprofit groups.

The times are such that even a $50 or $100 gift can seem like too much, when measured against one’s own anxiety.

I am anxious, but I find that whenever I manage to give anything at all, I feel a lot better.

[Donnachaidh]

1. I'd like to see how many salaried upper employees these charities have

I wonder how much Mr. Sharpe of the Sharpe group makes.

[Christian30]

2. Nonprofit executive salaries are public record

Are you suggesting that nonprofit execs are paid too much?

Nonprofits are required to post the salaries of their top 5 highest paid employees. The Sharpe Group is a private consultancy, so the 501(c)3 laws don't apply to it.