Edward Charles Blog

About 100,000 of the 1.3 million nonprofits in the U.S. could go under this year due to the credit crisis and funding cuts, says Paul Light, professor of public service at New York University, The Colorado Springs Gazette reported March 3 (see story). Light says, “Nonprofits could improve their chances of survival by merging, pooling resources and stewarding funds more carefully.”

According to Glenn Collins, New York Times, “Some 85 percent of the city’s nonprofits have annual budgets under $3 million, ‘and most of them don’t have endowments or cash reserves’, said Fran Barrett of the Community Resource Exchange, which provides management and financial help to about 300 community groups. ‘Some smaller organizations will have to shut their doors’.”  But most professionals acknowledge that merging requires a delicate approach.