Category Archives: In The News …

In the News: State of the Nonprofit Sector

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This week, the Nonprofit Finance Fund released its 2013 “State of the Sector Survey”, indicating that across the country “39% [of nonprofits] will change the main ways they raise and spend money” in the coming year. According to NFF CEO Anthony Bugg-Levine:

“Nonprofits are changing the way they do business because they have to: government funding is not returning to pre-recession levels, philanthropic dollars are limited, and demand for critical services has climbed dramatically. At the same time, 56 percent of nonprofits plan to increase the number of people served. That goal requires systemic change and innovation – both within the sector, and more broadly as a society that values justice, progress and economic opportunity.”

An NFF press release includes the following top-line findings from the survey:

Nonprofits need new funding sources and models.

  • 42% of survey respondents report that they do not have the right mix of financial resources to thrive and be effective in the next 3 years.
  • 1 in 4 nonprofits has 30 days or less cash-on-hand.
  • Over the next twelve months, 39% plan to change the main ways they raise and spend money.
  • 23% will seek funding other than grants or contracts, such as loans or investments.

Nonprofits that receive government funding face particular challenges:

  • Only 14% of nonprofits receiving state and local funding are paid for the full cost of services; just 17% of federal fund recipients receive full reimbursement. Partial reimbursements require additional funding to cover the growing gap as nonprofits serve more people.
  • Government is late to pay: Among those with state or local funding, just over 60% reported overdue government payments; over 50% reported late payments from the federal government.

Under these challenging conditions, many nonprofits are unable to meet growing need in their communities:

  • For the first time in the five years of the survey, more than half (52%) of respondents were unable to meet demand over the last year; 54% say they won’t be able to meet demand this year.
  • This represents a worrying trend; in 2009, 44% of nonprofits said they were unable to meet demand.
  • Jobs (59%) and housing (51%) continue to be top concerns for those in low-income communities.
  • 90% of respondents say financial conditions are as hard or harder than last year for their clients; this is actually a slight improvement from prior years’ outlook

Nonprofits are changing the way they do business to adapt to the new reality. In the past 12 months:

  • 49% have added or expanded programs or services; 17 percent reduced or eliminated programs or services.
  • 39% have collaborated with another organization to improve or increase services.
  • 39% have upgraded technology to improve organizational efficiency.
  • 36% engaged more closely with their board.

Within the Greater Washington region, the picture looks similar. Looking at a subsection of Catalogue-profile nonprofits operating in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C., an overwhelming majority (86%) project their service demand will slightly or significantly increase in 2013, while 58% responded that they will not be able to meet that demand. This continues a trend of demand for services exceeding the supply seen in since at least 2008. Another concerning statistic — over 40% of surveyed nonprofits in the region indicated that they do not have the right mix of financial resources to “thrive and be effective” over the next three years.

The NFF discusses the result of this data – that nonprofits are forced to “innovate to increase efficiency, access new kinds of funding, evaluate impact, and work collectively to tackle social problems.” The question we, supporters of the nonprofit community, must ask ourselves is whether we’re creating an environment that fosters such innovation.

In a TED Talk earlier this month, Dan Pallotta challenged listeners to let nonprofits take risks and possibly fail, but have the (financial) freedom to truly innovate and search for new solutions to society’s intractable social problems. Such work takes a commitment on the part of the funding community to support innovative nonprofit leaders — and is the only way that the nonprofit and philanthropic communities will not only weather the current economic uncertainties, but thrive and create sustainable, positive change in coming years.

Changing the Philanthropic Landscape

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Ever wonder exactly how the Catalogue got its start, how we’re related to the Harman Family Foundation, and what President Barbara Harman’s goal is for the Catalogue in the next five years? Last month, Harman sat down with the Association of Small Foundations’ CEO Henry Berman to talk about the Catalogue for Philanthropy — and the podcast was published on ASF’s website last week. Here are a few highlights of the interview, entitled “Creating a Piece of the Philanthropic Landscape”.

Barbara Harman started the Catalogue for Philanthropy back in 2003, after taking on a larger role at her family’s foundation. After spending more than 20 years teaching, researching, and writing as an English professor at Wellesley College, Harman felt the need to channel those talents in a new way — with a larger audience and a larger social impact. The foundation’s priorities revolved around the arts, and although the “big players” in the Washington region were easy to find (e.g. the Kennedy Center), Harman felt something was missing — as she calls it, the “landscape below the landscape”. It was difficult for the foundation to discover the cultural groups and arts-outreach organizations with a youth focus, serving under-served areas, or running programs in schools.

“For ordinary individuals wanting to be philanthropic, it was not so easy to find great community based nonprofits to whom they could give and [where] a donation of any size could have an impact,” says Harman. And that was the seed for the Catalogue.

When it first began, the Catalogue for Philanthropy was a much different animal than it is today. Originally, the Catalogue was just catalogue — a print publication that focused on donors and lived under the umbrella of the Harman Family Foundation, with a few independent supporters. Harman soon learned that the nonprofits featured, while honored to be a part of the beautiful print publication, identified other needs that the Catalogue could meet. The initiative soon evolved into an independent organization, offering an ever-expanding array of workshops and marketing/communications resources to its network of nonprofits. One of the key benefits for the nonprofit community? The sense of community itself.

“The first group was excited to find themselves in the Catalogue and excited to find themselves in the company of others doing similar work to their own,” explained Harman — a welcome change of pace for the group of small, widespread, and typically isolated nonprofits and their staff.

Looking back now on her work over the past ten years, Harman says she “had no idea what a big deal it would turn out to be…I didn’t see myself as taking on a big leadership role at the time — I had an idea, the skills to implement it, and fell into it a little bit.” As the Catalogue and its reach began to grow, both Harman and her family foundation decided to make a commitment to the Catalogue and its growth. “We both decided that we’re up for this and want to continue to support this. We created something that we believe in and something with its own power and rate of speed with lots of community support, but the foundation still believes in it…When you’ve created something that you believe in, how do you step away from that? That’s not something I could ever do.”

Harman calls herself an “accidental leader”; Berman suggests that serendipitous might be a better descriptor. Either way, the Washington region is surely better off for the work that the Catalogue has done to increase the profile of small nonprofits in the area and highlight the importance of individual giving. And as for the future? Harman wants to fulfill the wishes of many Catalogue supporters who frequently tell her that there should be Catalogues across the country: “Within the next 3-5 years, I would like to see a Catalogue for Philanthropy in 3, 4, or 5 regions across the country.” Here’s to making that goal a reality.

In The News…

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This week’s news brief looks at a group of stories that hit the media this week about homelessness in the Greater Washington region. A special thanks to all Catalogue nonprofits that support those experiencing homelessness in the DC region, especially during the winter months.

Finding homes for the homeless in Fairfax County (Washington Post) “Although building the database [photographs and personal information on as many chronically homeless people as they can find] is foremost about getting chronically homeless people into housing, the information also will help guide the county and nonprofit groups as they expand and improve their services, says Amanda Andere, the executive director of Facets. Part of the reason they must prioritize people is that the county lacks the resources to house everyone. The aim is to get at least 150 chronically homeless people into permanent housing within three years.”

D.C. Homeless Families Face Difficult Obstacles When Seeking Shelter (HuffPost: DC Impact) “The Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless, which provides legal representation for low- and no-income clients, compiled numerous complaints from clients and other relevant data to present major inefficiencies and inadequacies in the District’s current handling of homeless shelter accessibility. Focusing primarily on homeless families, the report identifies specific errors, including: altering the homeless of upcoming hypothermic conditions too late, failing to place qualifying families in shelters on nights where temperatures did not drop below freezing, wrongfully denying eligible families shelter placement and wrongfully threatening to expel families from shelters.”

D.C.’s main shelter crowded with large families (Washington Post) “A shortage of affordable housing for larger families with four or more children is a big factor behind crowded conditions at the District’s main family homeless shelter in Southeast Washington. The shelter has been filled to capacity this winter, with more than 900 people, including a record 600 children some nights. Rising poverty, unemployment and a lack of housing options among single parents who are heads of households are driving the city’s problem, experts say. The vast majority of parents living in D.C. General are single and female, according to the Department of Human Services.”

In The News …

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White House estimate spells out tough road for Washington region economy (Washington Post): “… the upcoming automatic spending cuts the Obama administration detailed Sunday would strike a tough blow, with nearly 150,000 civilian Defense Department employees facing furloughs and an estimated average loss of $7,500 in pay […] funding for elementary and secondary education across the region would be slashed by $29 million.” Economist Anirban Basu (Sage Policy Group) points out that sequestration will have a deeper effect on this region than the nation as a whole, as DC, Maryland, and Virginia are “among the most reliant communities in the nation on federal spending.”

Nonprofit Branding 2013: What Has Changed? (Nonprofit Quarterly): “First, we needed to see information technology not as a peripheral function within our organization but central to our mission pursuits. Second, we needed to see our identity less as an extension of our mission statement, but more as a link between the public perception of the impact we create and our higher calling to strengthen communities.” Carlo Cuesta, founder of the Saint Paul-based firm Creation in Common, goes to point out that “We have access to the tools and resources needed to build meaningful relationships with our stakeholders, what we lack are the capabilities to do it in a way that advances authenticity and mobilizes the public will.” Do you agree?

Gray aims high with sustainability plan; can agencies deliver? (Greater Greater Washington): “Last week, the Gray administration unveiled its sustainability plan, which sets some very ambitious, yet very important objectives for 2032, like attracting 250,000 new residents and making 75% of trips happen by walking, biking, and transit.” GGW argues that “to achieve these goals, agencies will have to push forward not just on their existing laudable initiatives, but go beyond.” For example: “it would be better to focus more new housing near Metro stations, streetcars, and high-frequency bus corridors. To do that, though, some administration will have to modify the Comprehensive Plan and zoning to create denser areas somewhere.”

In The News …

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DC, advocates at odds over homeless families; 900 people still in shelter (Washington Post): “This winter, the District’s shelter for homeless families at DC General Hospital is crammed full — 372 adults and nearly 600 children […] City officials say that hard times and the lack of affordable housing in poor neighborhoods are to blame for the continuing crisis of family homelessnes.” Last year, the number of homeless families in the District jumped by 18 percent and advocates argue that DC “is not doing nearly enough to help the neediest residents find permanent housing at a time of budget surplus.” Learn more about Catalogue’s homelessness and housing nonprofits right here.

Class-Divided Cities: Washington, DC Edition (The Atlantic): “More than any other metro we’ve covered, greater Washington, DC is a creative class region […] These are high-skilled, highly-educated, and high-paying positions where workers average $90,442 in wages and salaries, fourth highest in the nation […] Still, the class divide in the region is pronounced. The creative class is concentrated in the center of the metro, as the map shows.” A map charting the geography of class in the region shows a concentration of the creative class to the west and service to the east, yet almost no clusters of working class residents, implying that “Greater Washington is a fully post-industrial region.” Explore the interactive maps right here.

Tech’s new entrepreneurial approach to philanthropy (USA Today): “The intersection of technology and philanthropy is creating “philanthrocapitalism,” borrowing ideas from venture capitalism to fund non-profits.” For example, “NFS [Not For Sale], a model of [eBay founder Pierre] Omidyars’ brand of philanthropy, is based loosely on a venture-capital firm’s approach. And it is quickly becoming a powerful agent for social change, as eBay was for commerce.” Says Suzanne DiBianca, the co-founder and president of the Salesforce.com Foundation, “Companies are beginning to understand their power in leveraging their assets to non-profits […] It’s not just throwing a check over a wall.”

In The News …

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At rally, leaders promise action on affordable housing (Greater Greater Washington): “Over 300 people rallied for affordable housing this weekend with the Housing for All Campaign […] The next few months will be critical for housing funding. The task force is scheduled to release its report in the next few weeks, and Mayor Gray will announce his housing plan.” Do you agree that affordable housing is poised to become “key political issue?”

Report: Current Approach To Strategic Philanthropy Is Limiting (The NonProfit Times): “The current top-down approach to strategic philanthropy limits its overall effectiveness,” according to a new study by the Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Says NCRP Executive Director Aaron Dorfman, “All grantmakers want to maximize the impact of their grants […] What they may not realize is that the missing piece in their grantmaking strategy is the social justice lens.” What do you think of the report’s central suggestions?

Free Tax Help Clinics Begin Friday (ARLnow): “Starting this Friday, Arlington County is holding free clinics to assist residents with tax preparation. The clinics are intended to serve residents with ‘low or moderate income.'” Several clinics list a maximum income for those interested in taking part; all clinics begin in February and run through April, with locations at public libraries, Department of Human Services, and ECDC Enterprise Development Group.

In The News …

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In Maryland, forecast calls for more hires (Gazette): “About 22 percent of companies in Maryland plan to hire more employees in the first quarter this year, up from 17 percent in 2012’s first quarter, according to a recent survey by employment services company Manpower Group.” Nationwide, that number is five percentage points lower and the best prospects, reportedly, are in professional and business services. One reason? Many “employers that have been piling up profitable quarters say factors such as the fiscal cliff and a lack of qualified employees put a damper on their hiring plans last year.”

Chancellor Kaya Henderson names 15 DC schools on closure list (Washington Post): “More than one in 10 DC public schools will close as part of a plan Chancellor Kaya Henderson put forth Thursday, a retrenchment amid budget pressures, low enrollment and growing competition from public charter schools […] Closing half-empty schools will allow her to use resources more efficiently, she said, redirecting dollars from administration and maintenance to teaching and learning.” Community feedback persuaded the Chancellor to keep open five schools originally slated for closure. You can read the detailed Consolidation and Reorganization Plan on the DCPS website.

Graduation Rate Hits Record High For High School Students: Government Report (Huffington Post): “More US high school students than ever are graduating on time, according to new information released by the research arm of the US Education Department. The percentage of students who graduated from high school within four years of starting ninth grade in the 2006-2007 school year hit a record high.” In that year, 4 million students began high school and, four years later, just over 78% have graduated — a 2% increase overall. But while more students are completing high school, “fewer than half of those in the class of 2012 were “college ready” as determined by the College Board last fall.”

In The News …

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DC area unemployment rate is unchanged at 5.3 percent (Washington Post: Local): “The Washington area jobless rate hovered at 5.3% in November, according to a Labor Department report released Tuesday [January 7] that revealed little change in the local employment picture […] the Washington economy has been steadily adding jobs, but not at a fast enough clip for the recovery to shift into higher gear.” Education and health services posted the largest job gains, with the latter alone adding 11,300 between November 2011 and 2012. Local leisure and hospitality continued to add jobs as well, while manufacturing and construction both subtracted. Overall, the area remains well below the national rate of 7.8%.

The Fiscal Cliff Legislation: A Primer for Nonprofits on Its Provisions (Nonprofit Quarterly): “The short message that should be taken away from the so-called “fiscal cliff” legislation passed last night [January 1] is that it is no time to relax […] Here is our scorecard on the fiscal cliff mini-bargain.” At the NPQ website, you can read an overview of the final legislation on charitable deductions, marginal tax rates, and other taxes (such as the payroll tax); that said, “good news for nonprofits and the communities they serve is that a variety of programs that benefit working class and lower income people have been saved — for the time being.”

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In The News …

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How to Help Families Affected by Newtown School Shooting (Newtown Patch): “In the wake of the unimaginable tragedy at Sandy Hook School Friday people from all over the world — in Connecticut, California, Canada and much farther away in Australia and India — sent an outpouring of support and want to know how they can help.” Newtown Patch has compiled a list of ways to support individual families, the community, and local resources; instate residents can call 211 “for information about how individuals or businesses can support the victims and their families.” The article also invited readers to post “I want to help” in the comment section if they wished to receive updates on what they could do. Currently, over 1350 comments have appeared. The Chronicle of Philanthropy also reports that “more than $1-million has poured into a fund to help Newtown.”

New Maryland system measures school progress (Washington Post: Education): “The Howard and Frederick county school systems scored slightly higher than Montgomery County under a new Maryland accountability system that […] takes into account each school’s benchmarks on overall student performance, student growth, closing the achievement gap and preparing students for college and careers.” This new state data, which was released this past Monday, “comes from the School Progress Index, which is permitted under new federal rules that allow states to create their own ways to measure progress in public schools.” Maryland and Virginia, along with 34 other states and the District, have received waivers from the 2002 No Child Left Behind provisions.

‘Hugely complex’ work for philanthropy in the next decade (Washington Regional Association of Grantmakers): “The rise of a wide variety of strategies for mobilizing private resources to address common societal problems is now, and will increasingly in the future, blur the lines between what we call philanthropy and commerce,” writes Susan Raymond, Executive Vice President of Changing Our World, Inc. “That makes for exciting times. It also makes for challenges. Not the least of these challenges for the formal philanthropic sector — for foundations and corporate giving — is how to partner with these new resource strategies.” What new strategy, do you think, is having the greatest impact on philanthropy today?

In The News …

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Amid change, affordable housing revitalizes parts of Ward 5 (Greater Greater Washington): “As development along Rhode Island Avenue and New York Avenue take shape over the next few years, much of DC’s Ward 5 will see major changes. But can these changes draw new residents without displacing existing ones? A key element will be to preserve and expand the availability of affordable housing.” This past week, Housing For All Campaign hosted a town hall meeting focused on the options, both small and extensive, for accessible housing in Ward 5. “Ward 5 will continue to benefit from the investments in affordable housing that build vibrant spaces for current and future District residents.”

Online Giving Streak Continues With 13% Rise Last Week (Chronicle of Philanthropy): “Online giving to 8,700 charities rose 13.3 percent last week when compared with the same days last year, according to Network for Good […] What’s more, the number of donations grew nearly 7 percent.” The week of Thanksgiving, online giving actually rose an impressive 61 percent; and after Thanksgiving, giving rose by 42 percent — primarily as a result of Giving Tuesday. The Chronicle has created an interactive graphic that compares 2012 giving with 2011 giving on a day-by-day basis; check it out here.

Obesity in Young Is Seen as Falling in Several Cities (New York Times: Health): “After decades of rising childhood obesity rates, several American cities are reporting their first declines. The trend has emerged in big cities like New York and Los Angeles, as well as smaller places like Anchorage, Alaska, and Kearney, Nebraska.” While the the drops are small (5 percent or less in Philadelphia and Los Angeles), experts say they are significant because they offer the first indication that the obesity epidemic, one of the nation’s most intractable health problems, may actually be reversing course.” However, others point out that “the current declines, concentrated among higher income, mostly white populations, are still not benefiting many minority children.”