by Holly Delany Cole - A recent report by Douglas Holtz-Eakin, Ph.D. and Cameron Smith, funded by the Philanthropic Collaborative, found that Foundations responded in “a targeted and timely manner”, with grants appropriately directed to recession relief to the hardest-hit parts of the country.
The study reports that while in 2008, foundations suffered a record loss of 17% of their assets, on average they only diminished their giving to nonprofit organizations by 8.4% in 2009. Overall, the greatest increases in tactical giving by foundations were seen in localities with high mortgage delinquency rates, as well as those with high unemployment rates.
In New York City, we can attest first hand to the thoughtful and rapid response of many funders during the recession. New York City’s nonprofits have a strong philanthropic tie to the financial sector, so the shock waves that occurred on Wall Street were hard felt in the third sector.
In December 2008, CRE held a town hall meeting to gather nonprofit leaders and hear directly from them about what obstacles had resulted from the economic recession, and think of proactive ways to confront these challenges. Listening to the needs of those on the ground were foundation officers, government officials and of course all of us at CRE. This town hall helped inform our ‘Hard Times Offerings’, aimed at helping preserve safety-net services in communities of need especially due to the dire circumstances they faced in the recession.
As it turns out many of the listener attendees to our Town Hall felt equally inspired to support the sector in new and innovative ways.
The Staten Island Foundation partnered with us to hold another Town Hall Meeting for members of the Staten Island nonprofit community. The result of the Staten Island Town Hall gathering was a targeted grant cycle with emergency matching grants coupled with a novel series of leadership training roundtables for the benefit of all of the organizations. The targeted and thoughtful initiative by the Staten Island Foundation serves as an example of how local foundations can support their grantees beyond financial resources.
Another innovative approach to supporting NYC nonprofits can be seen through the United Way of New York City and the New York Community Trust’s funding of the Executive Director Hotline. The Executive Director Hotline is a free management assistance resource for nonprofit leaders and proves immediate strategic advice, information and referral, guidance and coaching! Since the inception of the Hotline in March 2009, CRE has advised and/or directed more than 150 nonprofit leaders to specific resources they needed to solve a problem or be more effective. CRE Advice Line is 917-344-6678 and is connected to ‘311’ in New York City.
Lastly, the New York Community Trust gave $8.76 million in early 2009 to help New Yorkers hurt by the recession for food, emergency loans, financial counseling and housing assistance. This proactive targeted grant making helped support the social safety net in New York City and assist the most vulnerable New Yorkers. As a grantee of the New York Community Trust’s initiative CRE developed and offered “Leading Through Difficult Times” workshops attended by 400 staff of 66 agencies affected by the recession, including 47 agencies new to CRE. We also worked with membership groups to such as City Harvest and their network of emergency food providers and the New York Immigrant Coalition to ensure safety net organizations had the tools they need to weather the fiscal crisis.
The study above only touches upon what we at CRE have seen first hand – a number of foundations have, without hesitation, stepped up to support the nonprofit sector using thoughtful innovation and tactical financial resource allocation.
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