Minnesota Council on Foundations Blog – Philanthropy Potluck

On Friday of last week I joined more than 200 attendees to hear Jon Pratt, Christina Wessel and Ruth Duran Deffley of MCN present the findings of their Nonprofit Current Conditions Report and the Minnesota Nonprofit Economy Report.

Their findings in a nutshell — “grim”:

• Sixty percent of organizations reported an increase in need for services, compared with 42 percent in 2008.
• The ability to meet this increase in need for services is undercut by the reduction in revenues to these organizations.
• The types of organizations most frequently reporting declining total revenue were environment related, education and employment/jobs related.
• Organizations with budgets under $400,000 have faced the most difficulty in 2009.

Many nonprofits are trying to stay afloat by cutting staff, creating hiring and salary freezes and reducing employee benefits. The outlook for 2010 according to survey’s nonprofit respondents? Gloomier still than 2009. What are nonprofits to do?

Marcia Avner, public policy director at MCN, says, “This is not a time to wring our hands.” Marcia went on to make a plea for nonprofits to band together in these troubled times and create a unified voice to advocate for creating a sustainable state budget through participation in Invest in Minnesota, a coalition of nonprofit, faith and labor organizations.

The response panel carried forward this theme of defiance in tough times. Mark Peterson of Lutheran Social Services challenged attendees to build “a culture of possibilities” by developing practices in their organizations that encourage everyone from staff to board to innovate, create goals and execute them.

Similarly, Kate Barr of the Nonprofits Assistance Fund stated that, whereas 2009 was a time for “trimming the edges,” survival in 2010 and beyond will be determined by how willing nonprofits are to rethink their way of delivering services and maintaining back office operations. Short-term thrusters will no longer drive solutions for maintaining operations; organizations must look to the long term — three years out — and develop a plan for sustainability.

Renae Oswald-Anderson, director of MAP for Nonprofits’ Project ReDesign, asked nonprofit leaders to look within and define first what they do best as an organization, and then seek partners to shore up gaps. She stated that this strategy — sticking to your core services and finding opportunities to collaborate and share resources with others — may be the key to continuing operations for many nonprofits that are facing hard times in the recession.

“Now is the time to ask, What can we do better together?” Renae reiterated in her closing statement. Fortunately there are resources available for funders and nonprofits considering just this question. Project ReDesign has many resources available on its website, and Grantcraft recently released a guide for grantmakers on funding collaboratives.

Upcoming program: MCF’s 2010 Funding Outlook for Minnesota Grantmakers and Nonprofits
Registration is now available online for MCF’s Outlook event happening on January 29th in St. Paul. At the event philanthropic and nonprofit colleagues will convene to learn about the funding outlook for 2010, based on MCF’s survey of grantmakers conducted in October-November 2009, and to network and discuss opportunities to work toward shared goals. For further information and to register, visit mcf.org.

- Cary Lenore Walski, MCF web communications associate