Nonprofits Hear A Gloomy Forecast About Future Funding

An article in MinnPost covers an event held last week, “The State We’re In: Fulfilling Human Service Needs in a Time of Economic Uncertainty.” Leaders from the Council of Agency Executives, Greater Twin Cities United Way, MAP for Nonprofits, Minnesota Council of Nonprofits and MCF participated in the panel discussion.

If nonprofits think the current economy is troublesome, the message from Frank Forsberg of the Greater Twin Cities United Way is hold on tight, it’s going to get worse. “Make sure that you realize that the biggest challenges are still to come — they are coming in 2009 and 2010,” Forsberg, senior vice president of community impact, told a room of 200-plus nonprofit leaders.

Nan Madden, the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits’ director of the Minnesota Budget Project, says that many nonprofits rely heavily on government funding, but the next legislative session will start in a “$2 billion biennial budget hole.”

MCF president Bill King explained philanthropy’s role in funding and said that Minnesota grantmakers won’t be able to make up the difference; the most recent numbers show that Minnesota foundations and corporate giving programs made $1 billion in grants in 2005:

The 2008 foundation grants are set, he said. “Next year and the year after … is what we have to be concerned about.”

So what’s a nonprofit to do? Panelists suggested collaborations, coalitions, mergers and partnerships. Read more about these ideas near the end of the MinnPost article, and read Nonprofits Assistance Fund executive director Kate Barr’s thoughts about nonprofit mergers on her Balancing the Mission Checkbook blog.

Join the conversation: Will your nonprofit be affected by the economy? Are you facing government budget cuts? How will your organization cope?

- Crystal Colby, MCF’s web communications associate

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 3:48 pm and is filed under collaboration, in the news, nonprofits. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

One Response to “Nonprofits Hear A Gloomy Forecast About Future Funding”

  1. Arthur Bushkin Says:
    June 25, 2009 at 9:29 am | Reply

    There is a simple way to produce billions of dollars of long-term funding for social causes. There is a way to harness the power of Capitalism for the Common Good that avoids government spending, taxes, stimuli, or bailouts. Companies can grant Social Bonuses by donating warrants to charity – something that doesn’t cost them anything to give – and get a deferred tax deduction for the value of the gift. To learn more go to: http://www.Stargazer.org/causes.

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