Skip to main content

Fiscal Stress of Nonprofits Measured in National Report

Image
By

The Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project is monitoring in a systematic and timely way what is happening to nonprofit organizations in the Unites States. In a report released late last month, the majority of US nonprofits in the study report experiencing some level of fiscal stress. Except for arts organizations, the stress level of sizable majorities of organizations at present are “minimal” or “moderate”.

However, 40% of US nonprofits are reporting this stress is “severe” or “very severe”. Particularly hard hit are theaters and orchestras (half to three-quarters of them are in this category) whose heavier reliance on donations saw the worst revenue losses. By contrast, only 29% of museums are reporting severe or very severe stress, putting them with educational institutions at the lower end of the stress spectrum. Museums continue to report strong general audience visitation, an indicator of their importance to the public in times of economic and emotional hardship.

Nonprofits in the $500K-$3M budget category are reporting the highest levels of fiscal stress.

Substantial numbers of organizations in the study are taking a three-pronged approach to mitigating their financial stress:

Intensified Fundraising

For cultural organizations this is focusing largely on expanding individual and foundation donations, asking for smaller gifts from more diversified pools of potential donors, and reseeding endowment funds (one campaign is asking every member to make an endowment gift of $18.69 – 1869 was the year the organization was founded – if successful, $10,000 new dollars will be added to the fund).

Belt-tightening

Cost cutting measures are being augmented with energy conservation activities and expanding collaborations that look to share services, facilities and expertise.

Expanding Entrepreneurial Activities

For cultural organizations these activities are focusing largely on ramping up marketing and funding advocacy efforts. Instituting new fees and raising existing fees for services are also in the mix.

And what about those nonprofits reporting minimal stress? What have they been doing to protect themselves? Here are the top five responses:

  • Maintained a conservative management approach – 73%
  • Have strong community support – 41%
  • Have extraordinary board or staff – 39%
  • Increased demand for services – 32%
  • Engaged in effective strategic planning – 32%
Photo: Zoom by Still Burning

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Back in the Saddle

By
MY LAST POST WAS NOVEMBER 2012, A LIGHT YEAR AWAY it seems, that marked the beginning of a long push toward completing a manuscript on history museum leadership with my co-author, Joan Baldwin.  We finally submitted 350+ pages to our editor at Rowman & Littlefield this week.  If all goes well, we expect the book to be available in early 2014.  It's taken us two years to get to this point, so six more months or so of revision and production don't seem too long to wait until we can hold the final product in our hands (and you can, too!). The project put a lot of things on hold, including this blog.  I'm glad to be back writing about intentional leadership -- leading by design -- for nonprofit boards and staffs.  Certainly, my thoughts are now informed by the forthcoming book, in which Joan and I posit that nonprofits need to focus resources on leadership, not just management.  Most cultural nonprofits are at a crossroad, as is the sector in general, where nothing is qu
14 comments
Read more

Change for Your Board in 2010: A Polling Update

By
WE'RE A DAY INTO MY LAST POLL (SEE RIGHT) AND the responses are clustering in two areas: 1) removing dead wood from the board and 2) using better/different tools to make decisions/evaluate performance. There are still six days left for your colleagues to cast their vote! In the meantime, those of you who are in need of tools for decision-making might want to check my posts on taking stock here , here and here .
Post a Comment
Read more

Three Most Important Nonprofit Executive Director Soft Skills

By
If you were asked to narrow down the list of executive director qualifications to the three most important, which ones would you identify? Would the list consist of soft skills, hard skills, or some combination? Would your list be based on the great ED you are or one you've worked for, or would it be your wish list for the ED you haven't been fortunate yet to work for?  This was an assignment in my recent online class in leadership and administration for the American Association for State and Local History . I asked the class to review three-five advertisements for museum directors and analyze what these listings intimated about the organization’s past experience, current focus and goals, and future aspirations. Then, I asked the class to identify what they consider to be the three most important qualifications they would look for in a director. (Okay, so there's more than three if you dissect my three big groups.)  Soft skills outnumbered hard skills, although
27 comments
Read more