Survey: 80% of nonprofits say donations are flat or down

GuideStar recently surveyed nonprofits asking: "Did total contributions to your organization increase, decrease, or stay about the same between October 2008 and February 2009, compared to the same period a year earlier?"

About 52 percent of organizations reported a decrease and 27 percent said donations were about the same. The number reporting a drop was significantly higher than the 35 percent who reported lower contributions for January to September 2008, which was nearly double the 19 percent who reported a decline for January-September 2007.

Meanwhile, 59 percent of organizations reported increased demand for their services between October 2008 and February 2009 and, distressingly, 8 percent of organizations reported that they were in imminent danger of folding because of financial reasons.

Despite the decline in donations, only 35 percent of organizations said they had cut their 2009 budgets from 2008 levels. Of those that did, 57 percent reduced services, 45 percent froze salaries, 37 percent froze hiring and 30 percent had layoffs. Others reported salary cuts (20 percent), employee benefit cuts (20 percent) and reduced operating hours (13 percent).

Grant makers also felt the pinch. About a third said they gave less money in grants over the five-month period than during the same period a year earlier. Still, 57 percent of grant makers said they had not changed their grant-making practices or guidelines. However, 17 percent cut back on types of programs funded, 8 percent reduced payouts they had committed to make, 7 percent stopped accepting grant applications, 5 percent only accepted applications from organizations they had funded before, 5 percent increased grant making to help grantees cope with the economy and 1 percent did not make payouts they had already committed to make.

Click here to see the complete survey findings.