A collection of reports on the status of nonprofits:

Snapshot of Issues Facing Nonprofits: Fundraising Outlook for Fiscal Year 2009: [pdf] Prepared in March 2009 by the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits, this report finds:

•Nonprofits are increasingly concerned about massive cutbacks from traditional government funding sources and the reduced level of services to those in living in poverty.
•There is increased client need over last year.
•A serious concern about layoffs and staff downsizing in the nonprofit sector is prevalent.
•The overall number of individual donors has increased over last year.
•Corporate giving is drastically down from last year and is expected to continue downward well into next year due to the downsizing of many of our local corporations.
•Increased foundation giving seems to have had the greatest impact on emergency assistance such as food, clothing, and housing assistance agencies.

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The Quiet Crisis: The Impact of the Economic Downturn on the Nonprofit Sector [pdf]. Released in March 2009 by Civic Enterprises and Democratic Leadership Council, this report says:

Reversing the nonprofit plunge is a matter of jobs, not just charity. With 9.4 million employees and 4.7 million full-time volunteers nationwide, nonprofits constitute 11 percent of the American workforce -- greater than the auto and financial industries combined. If the nonprofit sector were a country, it would have the seventh largest economy in the world. We cannot afford for it to go the way of Iceland, whose financial system collapsed.

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Nonprofit Fundraising Trends 2009 [pdf]. Released 2/25/09 by Retriever Development Counsel, LLC, this report says:

Organizations that are doing well are not necessarily the ones with the biggest budgets or the ones that had the best fundraising year in 2008. Hallmarks of these organizations include:

•Diversified revenue streams and a variety of ways to give;
•Engaged leadership (executive, development/fundraising, and board) that is prepared to address the changes in the coming year;
•More effort expended into donor outreach and cultivating relationships;
•Investment in development staff, resources, and/or activities; and
•Proactive planning. They are looking to do more, not less.

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Nonprofit Mergers and Acquisitions: More Than A Tool for Tough Times. Issued in February 2009 by Bridgespan Group, which states:

Mergers and acquisitions (M and A) are much more common in the nonprofit world than most would think, as our study of 3,300 deals across four states over 11 years shows. But nonprofit mergers often come about through default—due to financial distress or leadership vacuums. At the same time, relatively few nonprofits are using M&A strategically, as a way to strengthen organizations' effectiveness, spread best practices, expand reach, and to do all of this more cost-effectively. Yet the potential for M&A to create real value in the nonprofit sector exists, particularly if more philanthropists take on the mantle of matchmaker and help nonprofits explore and evaluate M&A opportunities. This article discusses research conducted by the Bridgespan Group on nonprofit M and A; explores the Child and Family Services (CFS) field, where "market" conditions are especially favorable to combinations; and profiles two nonprofits making the most of acquisitions. It also issues a call to action to philanthropists to further strategic, social sector M and A.

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A Snapshot of the Effects of the Economic Downturn on Nonprofits [pdf]. Issued by Management Consulting Services in January 2009, this white paper attempts to gauge the impact of the economy on Massachusetts nonprofits. Here's a sampling of findings:

•While organizations of all budget sizes anticipate the economic downturn impacting their organization, organizations with smaller budgets indicate that the impact will be greater compared to organizations with larger budgets.
•More than half the respondents reported that their organizations will see a decrease in revenue during the current fiscal year. About one-third of the respondents feel that the revenues would decrease more than 10% during the current fiscal year at their organizations. About one-third of the respondents also feel their organizations will experience a decline in revenues during the next fiscal year.
•There were no significant trends related to decrease in revenue across organizations with different operating budgets or across program areas, suggesting that organizations across all program areas and operating budgets are seeing similar changes.
•While the respondents felt that the revenues were decreasing, many (40.5%) felt that the demand for the services of their organization had increased in the past 3 months.
•While there were no significant trends related to changes in demand over the past 3 months across organizations with different operating budgets, significantly greater percentage ofrespondents from organizations providing human services reported more than 10% increase in demand during the past 3 months.

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Listening Post Project Communique No. 14: Impact of the 2007-09 Economic Recession on Nonprofit Organizations (June 2009) [PDF]. Based on a survey conducted in April 2009 by the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies, the Communique reports that:

•83 percent of responding organizations reported some level of fiscal stress during the target period of September 2008 to March 2009.
•Close to 40 percent of the organizations considered the stress to be “severe” or “very severe.
•Theaters and orchestras were particularly hard hit, with 73 percent of the former and half of the latter reporting“severe” or “very severe” stress.
•A third or more of child-serving and elderly-serving organizations also reported “severe” or “very severe” fiscal stress.
•The share of organizations reporting “severe” or “very severe” fiscal stress is actually lower now than during the recession that followed 9/11 (37% vs. 51% of organizations).
•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.

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Managing in Tough Times: May 2009 Nonprofit Leaders Survey Update (June 2009). To update their November study, Managing in Tough Times: 7 Steps, the Bridgespan Group surveyed nearly 100 nonprofit leaders in May 2009 to find out how the ongoing recession is currently affecting their organizations. Here's a sampling of what they found:

•Since November 2008, the percentage of nonprofits reporting funding cuts has increased from 52 percent to 69 percent.
•The percentage reporting cuts of more than 20 percent has increased from 13 percent to 24 percent.
•70 percent of small organizations (those with revenues less than $1 million) reported that their financial picture had worsened in the past six months, compared with 38 percent for medium and 41 percent for large organizations ($1 million to 10 million, and greater than $10 million, respectively).

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Nonprofit Finance Fund Survey: America's Nonprofits in Danger (April 2009). The results from a survey of more than 1,100 nonprofits conducted by Nonprofit Finance Fund in February and March, 2009, includes these findings:

•65 percent are developing "worst-case scenario" contingency budgets.
•59 percent are engaging more closely with boards through more frequent reports and meetings.
•48 percent are freezing all hires and current staff salaries.
•Only 12 percent expect to operate above break-even this year.

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Foundations Address the Impact of the Economic Crisis (April 2009). An examination of how foundations have been responding to the current economic crisis, this research advisory is based on early 2009 survey responses of more than 1,200 U.S. foundations. It is part of an ongoing Foundation Center research series intended to shed light on the impact of the economic downturn on the nonprofit sector. Key findings:

•Close to two-thirds of surveyed foundations predict reductions in the number and/or size of their grants in 2009.
•Most respondents expect to maintain the number of program and geographic areas they currently support.
•Two out of five respondents expect to dip into their endowment principal to fund their 2009 grants budgets.
•Over half of respondents anticipate engaging in more non-grantmaking activities in response to the economic downturn.
•More than one-third of community foundation respondents are engaging in special initiatives in response to the economic crisis, compared to 14 percent of respondents overall.

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Glass Half Full or Half Empty? Results of GuideStar's Latest Nonprofit Economic Survey (August 2009)
GuideStar’s most recent nonprofit economic survey takes a look at the financial health of charitable organizations from March-May 2009. They found that since the last update, covering October 2008-February 2009, the percentage of nonprofits reporting decreased contributions has remained steady at 52%. Other findings showed that:

•18% of responding nonprofits saw their contributions increase, while 29% reported that their contributions had stayed about the same from the previous survey period.
•Nonprofits reported that the decrease in giving was the result of the following:
◦Fewer individuals gave (69%)
◦Gifts from individuals were smaller (68%)
◦Corporate gifts were smaller (38%)
◦Private foundation grants were smaller (37%)

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Volunteering in America: Research Highlights (August 2009) [PDF]
The Corporation for National and Community Service collects information on the American volunteer landscape in an effort to track changes and developments that may be useful for civic leaders and nonprofit organizations. Some of the key findings showed that:

•In 2008, 61.8 million Americans or 26.4 percent of the adult population contributed 8 billion hours of volunteer service worth $162 billion, using Independent Sector’s 2008 estimate of the dollar value of a volunteer hour ($20.25).
•As the economy slows and nonprofit organizations struggle to provide services on smaller budgets, volunteers become even more vital to the health of our nation’s communities. Between September 2008 and March 2009, more than a third (37%) of nonprofit organizations report increasing the number of volunteers they use, and almost half (48%) foresee increasing their usage of volunteers in the coming year. Almost no nonprofit organizations are showing a decrease in their volunteer usage.
•Volunteers were much more likely than non-volunteers to donate to a charitable cause in 2008, with 78.2 percent contributing $25 or more compared to 38.5 percent of non-volunteers.

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Nearly 30% of Nonprofit Leaders Took a Pay Cut This Year; Pay in 2008 Grew Quickly (Sept. 2009)
The Chronicle of Philanthropy conducted a survey of 325 organizations that raised the highest amounts of donations from private sources in 2008, as well as grantmakers holding the highest assets that year. The results of the survey revealed that:

•57 charities and foundations—29 percent of the 195 groups that responded—reported that their top executive had taken a pay cut this year due to the recession, declined raises or bonuses, or had his or her pay frozen. The median pay cut was 10 percent.
•The median compensation for chief executives at the organizations surveyed was $361,538, based on information from 253 groups that provided data for both 2007 and 2008. In 2007 the median compensation was $330,395.

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Nonprofit Finance Fund's and Business Volunteers Unlimited's Nonprofit Survey - Northeast Ohio (August 2009)
Locally, the Nonprofit Finance Fund and Business Volunteers Unlimited recently conducted a survey of Northeast Ohio nonprofits and found that nonprofits are struggling to balance falling revenues and an increase in demand as they plan for 2010. Read a summary of the survey for more information about the findings.

Special thanks to Cindy Bailie, Director, Foundation Center (Cleveland, Ohio Library) for sharing these annotated citations.