follow the money

If you have tuned into any business news channel or flipped to the business sections of your favourite newspaper, you cannot ignore the pundits calling for a global recession. As a charity or a nonprofit CEO / Executive Director, what does this mean for your financial outlook for the next 3-5 years? Let's take a look at what happened to charitable giving and nonprofit funding during the Great Recession of our decade...

Pinch me.

A Stanford article in 2012 stated "At current rates of growth, according to Giving USA, it will take until 2022 to return to the level of giving recorded in 2007." 

An economic study published by Community Development Halton in 2010 had the following key findings (read the report for a full list):

• smaller charities, arts and culture and environmental non-profits – were the most negatively impacted by decreases in their revenue in 2009;
• Social Services and Health-care organizations were both significantly impacted by surging demand and operating costs for the services they provide

Hard Hit, a 2010 study by Social Planning Network of Ontario found:

• Rising demand
• Inability to meet needs
• Deficits up, surpluses down
• Falling revenues
• Challenging working conditions for nonprofits and charities

Read more here.

Too big to ignore. 

The charitable sector is big in Canada.

Are you scared yet?

Revisit the past decade. What happened to your revenues? Staffing levels? How did you recover? Historical performance is not an indicator of future returns, but it's a pretty good place to start.
Build resilience into your forecasts. Know your levers. Tell your senior staff. Inform your Board of Directors.
Layer sensitivity analysis in your views. "What if..."
Keep that enterprise risk management plan handy. Do you even have one?
Partner. Merge. Acquire. Get economies of scale on your side.
Rally the troops. Talk to your funders and donors about their commitments. 
Be. Prepared.

Get in touch with us if you need a sounding board.
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​We are here to help.