Note: From the New York Times. An interesting trend to track for volunteer managers.
-Alison
Can Volunteers Be a Lifeline for Nonprofit Groups?
TIMES are certainly tough on Wall Street, and the automakers are suffering as well. But consider the hardships that nonprofit organizations are enduring.
Public funding and charitable donations have plummeted even as demand for nonprofits’ services — especially for things like food and housing assistance — has risen sharply.
Not far from my town, the Community FoodBank of New Jersey reports that donations were down 20 percent last year until a last-minute celebrity fund-raising pitch, while demand for services grew 30 percent. “We pulled it out last year, but we don’t know what’s going to happen this year,” said Kathleen DeChiara, the president and C.E.O.
Nonprofits have a hidden challenge as well: in contrast to executives at most midsize and large businesses, many leaders of nonprofits run very lean organizations and have sometimes risen through the ranks because of their commitment to the group’s mission rather than their managerial expertise. In effect, they are navigating an economy in crisis without much of a rulebook.
Before the economic turmoil, nonprofits were becoming more inclined to help their executives get management training. But now, many groups are holding off on such training because of financial pressures.
At Indiana University, which runs a large program in nonprofit management, registration for its next quarter is off by more than a third, said Dwight F. Burlingame, associate executive director of the Center on Philanthropy there. “We all know it’s the one thing we shouldn’t cut at this time,” he said. “But the reality is, if you have to keep a staff member and cut training, that’s what you do. Then that just sort of snowballs and causes stress on the organization.”
The good news is that the current economy is also creating potential opportunities for nonprofits.
