Financial sector's meltdown can cripple nonprofits

Writing for Nonprofit Quarterly, Rick Cohen, the magazine's national correspondent, draws a bleak picture of what the investment banking, home mortgage and credit crisis means for the nonprofit sector:

"It's hardly news to the readers of the Cohen Report that these are tough fundraising times for the nonprofit sector. As the always-sharp Melissa Berman of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors noted in a recent Wall Street Journal article, nonprofits face a dual crisis -- the collapse of some major corporate givers and the timing of the collapse just before many nonprofits' core fundraising time at the end of the calendar year.

"The Economist in covering the Clinton Global Initiative this week described the impending problem succinctly: "the financial crisis means that there will be a greater need for philanthropy than ever -- both because existing foundations will see their assets fall, and because the huge cost of bailing out the financial system will mean that government has far less to spend on everything else."

"This issue of the Cohen Report looks at the numbers -- the amount of philanthropic grant making that will be lost due to the financial freefall that has enveloped the likes of Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, Washington Mutual, Wachovia, Countrywide Financial, IndyMac, and, not to be forgotten, the two housing finance GSEs, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac: What the Financial Sector Meltdown Really Means for Nonprofits and Philanthropy."