good2gether

July 2, 2009

July 2, 2009, originally uploaded by Middlesex Fells.

You know there's something wrong with the weather when you take a picture at 8:20AM on July 2nd in Melrose, MA and your flash goes off.

Day after day after day after day of rain.

Yikes.

Scary times for nonprofits.

Very interesting – and scary- research on the economic impact on nonprofits by Johns Hopkins University. Some key points:

"PERFECT STORM" OF FISCAL STRESS HITS NONPROFITS

Eighty percent of nonprofit organizations are experiencing fiscal stress according to a survey released today by Johns Hopkins University, and close to 40 percent of them reported that this stress was "severe" or "very severe."  Theaters and orchestras were particularly hard hit, with nearly 75 percent of the former and half of the latter reporting "severe" or "very severe" stress.

Contributing to this stress has been a perfect storm of impacts including declining revenues (51 percent of organizations); increased costs, particularly for health benefits; declining endowments; and decreased cash flow as a result of restricted credit and government payment delays.

The 363 organizations that participated in the survey as part of the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Listening Post differ widely in size, cover all regions, and represent a diverse array of fields, including children and family services, elderly services and housing, community development, education, arts and culture, and others. 

Despite the dire challenges, more than two-thirds of the organizations indicated that they have been "successful" or "very successful" in coping with the current fiscal crisis. This is consistent with experience in prior recessions, during which nonprofits boosted employment while for-profit employment declined.  This suggests that nonprofits are a counter-cyclical force in the economy. 

"Our nation's nonprofit organizations are displaying exceptional resilience in the face of enormous fiscal challenges," said Lester M. Salamon, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies, which conducted this survey as part of its Listening Post Project. "Nearly three-fourths of the organizations reported being able to maintain or actually increase the number of people they serve, and this was especially true of service to vulnerable populations."

To achieve this result, nonprofits have displayed unusual resolve and launched inventive coping strategies:

• Well over half of all organizations have launched new or expanded fund-raising efforts, targeting individuals, state and local government, the federal government and foundations.
• Substantial proportions of organizations are tightening their belts further, cutting administrative costs, creating collaborative relationships with other nonprofits, instituting salary freezes, postponing new hires, and relying more heavily on volunteers.
• Substantial numbers are also stepping up their marketing and their advocacy.

                Additional findings of this survey included:

• While cultural institutions have been particularly hard hit by the recession, a third or more of child-serving and elderly-serving organizations also reported "severe" or "very severe" fiscal stress.
• Beyond the 51 percent of responding organizations that reported declining revenues, a substantial majority also anticipated further revenue declines over the coming months, particularly from private giving and government support.
• Among revenue sources, losses were particularly widespread from individual contributions (losses for 53 percent of organizations), corporate contributions (losses for 44 percent of organizations), and foundation support (losses for 42 percent of organizations).
• Reflecting their heavier reliance on donations, theaters and orchestras saw the worst revenue losses, with close to 80 percent of the theaters and 70 percent of orchestras reporting losses.
• Government support, which plays a larger role than philanthropy in the funding of nonprofits, declined at fewer organizations, but more than a third (35 percent) of organizations experienced declines in this important source of support, as well, and over 40 percent reported delays in government payments.
• More than half (57 percent) of organizations experienced increased health benefit costs, underlining the importance of health benefit reform for nonprofits.
• Nonprofits were also affected by the general collapse of investment asset values. Among the organizations that have endowments, 80 percent reported that they had decreased in value.
• Despite these realities, 73 percent of responding organizations reported being able to maintain or increase the number of people they serve, and for organizations serving vulnerable populations, this figure was even higher (96 percent for organizations serving people with disabilities, 92 percent for organizations serving the economically disadvantaged, 86 percent for organizations serving the elderly, and 82 percent for organizations serving children and youth).

"The news is mixed, at best," noted Peter Goldberg, president and CEO of the Alliance for Children and Families and chair of the Listening Post Project Steering Committee.  "Resilience in the face of crunching challenges inspires pride in the sector, but also a deep concern about future capacities of nonprofit organizations to fulfill their missions."

You can see the report here – The Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project, Impact of the Economic Recession on Nonprofits.

Survey says! Nonprofits need computer gear!

Fascinating stuff - we survey a bunch of nonprofits to see if they'd like/take in-kind donations of computer gear.  The answer is - they sure would.  Take a look.

09 06 22 Survey Says!

View more Microsoft Word documents from Greg Mchale.

good2gether Overview.

Here's an overview on good2gether - first page is aimed at nonprofits, 2nd page is for brands sponsors of Do Good channels and connect2cause widgets.  Enjoy!

09-06-16 g2g Overview June 2009 UPDATED

Publish at Scribd or explore others: Brochures & Catalogs

Syndication widgets and a nonprofit that gets it!

Two points to this post:

• American Red Cross – Greater Rochester Chapter gets it! Tons of great stuff that you can do with them.
• Syndication widgets are cool.

I went into the CMS, grabbed the embed code for their syndication widget, dropped it here on the blog, and voila! Their stuff streamed here  

That means that any nonprofit can enter and manger their events, volunteering opportunities, in kind donation needs, and more and have them appear and be discoverable in any Do Good channel and syndicate it all right back to their own web site.

Enter once, it's everywhere! Syndication widgets are great.

Survey says? Nonprofits need PCs!

Interesting stuff.

We ran a survey with 2,000 nonprofits who currently use Do Good channels. We asked them if they could use and would accept in kind donations of personal computers. The results surprised us. 80% (4 out of 5) said yes, they wanted and needed in kind donations of computers.

Click on the chart to see a larger view.

Newseum.

P1010842, originally uploaded by Middlesex Fells.

I've always loved newspapers, always will. Love the whole experience of having physical newspapers and reading through them - section by section. Having said that, I'm clearly in the minority. I took this out in from of the Newseum in DC. I certainly hope that it won't be the only place where we'll be finding physical newspapers in five years. That would be tragic.

Des Moines & Rochester go live!

They're here!  Our 11^th and 12^th local Do Good channels are up and running and our partner sites were just updated with the connect2cause widgets - we welcome The Des Moines Register (Do Good Des Moines) and The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (Do Good Rochester). 

These are the first two Gannett markets to launch and there are seven more that should be going live shortly.  And then?  Then we hope for a whole lot more but that's in the future.  Right now we're just thrilled to have these two up and running.  Kudos to the team at Gannett and to our guys - Ray, Allison, Amy, & Jong - for getting us launched.  Great stuff all.

Take a look at the home pages (Des Moines here) and (Rochester here) - see the red boxes below?  That shows you the location of the state-of-the-art connect2cause V2 widgets that our friends at Gannett have deployed. 

Right now we have the American Red Cross (food & nutrition services), ABC Basset Hound Rescue (looking for auction donations), and the American Red Cross again (job posting) featured in Rochester.  And in Des Moines it's the Des Moines Arts Festival (programs & volunteering), Children & Families of Iowa (in kind donations), and YMCA of Greater Des Moines (volunteers) that are featured in the connect2cause widget.

With our new connect2cause widgets we can update and feature new organizations, events, volunteering opportunities, in kind donation needs, and more, quickly and easily.  We can help leverage the power of our local media partners to make people aware of nonprofit needs - to getting more people involved and doing good.  It's an amazing thing to be part of. 

More markets doing good.  We love it.  Our aim?  A local Do Good channel in every city and town across America.  But for now, we'll just be happy about launching Des Moines and Rochester.

Good stuff – Cell Phones for Soldiers.

From Do Good Boston but they do it across the country – Cell Phones for Soldiers. Check your closet, basement, garage, attic – you have a cell phone sitting around unused. Now you can put it to good use. Wait. It's actually to great use. Help the troops.

The greatest cookies in the history of the world.

The greatest cookies in the history of the world., originally uploaded by Middlesex Fells.

Family recipe for Welsh cookies. They're the best Jerry, the best!