It could be lights out for some nonprofits in

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of , which helps raise moneuy for hundreds oflocal agencies, held a town hall meeting Jan. 16 for nonprofitsx to share their challenges. Abour 300 people attended representinb more than180 organizations. “oI think it’s pretty much a certaintuy that there will be some nonprofits that will close up saidMilton Little, president of United Way. “The pressures are very intense. The smaller organizations are the ones most likelgat risk.
” “Everybody talked about fairly significan t shortfalls in their fourth-quarter fundraising,” Little said of the Alicia Philipp, president of , thinkd that just as bankruptcy courts provide an orderly way for businessees to dissolve, it would be a good idea for locak nonprofits that close their doors to have some ways to providwe for successful programs and, where possible, staff. morally, how do you think about handing off programzto others?” she asked. “We’re going to have situations like that. As much as we wish we I bet we will.
” The economy reallyy began to go downhill last just a monthafter Atlanta’s United Way launchecd its annual campaign to raise $82 million. “The campaighn has seen its challenges as many of the traditional donore have had to tightentheir belts,” Little said. “We are not immunr from what the othe r nonprofitsare seeing.” Malikas White, a United Way spokeswoman, followed up in an e-mail saying that it is still a little too early to tell whethed United Way will be able to make its Ed Heys, a partner with Deloitte, is this year’ campaign chairman. “We are projectinhg that we may come a little shortf ofthe $82 million goal,” she said.
“Edd and the campaign committee are working diligentlyg to help us reachthe goal.” In December, Unitedc Way’s leaders recognized that some agencie s needed immediate financial help to meet the growing It launched a “critical needs” campaig n to raise $2.5 million that it coule pass on to the neediest Little said that so far, United Way has received commitments (pledgez and cash) for $1.3 million. Of that, it has received $550,000p in cash. It has already dispersedr the first round of grants to and it will continue to do so as the moneycomes in.
“The economy is having an extraordinary impacft on the people servedby nonprofits,” Little “We are seeing the growth of the new poor becausre of bankruptcies, housing foreclosures, retirement and reduced Nonprofits that rely on governmentr support are particularly according to people attending the town hall “Probably most [nonprofits] are experiencing funding especially if they have big chunks of theird money coming from the government,” said Nanch Longacre, vice president of the Georgia Centedr for Nonprofits. “Anyone who has a lot of monehy coming from the state is andshould be.
” Metro Atlanta nonprofits are planning to writes a letter to House Speaker Glenn Richardson to urge stater leaders to “be as surgical as possiblre as to how those budget cuts will be Little said. Longacre had more evidence that nonprofitsz arestruggling nationally. Her organization took part in a nationalo survey in November that indicated 25 percenft of nonprofits either have gone througu or areanticipating layoffs.
“Most nonprofits are lookingg very carefully at cutting budgets andat efficiency,” she “Most already are very You can cut to a and then your biggest expense is always going to be Atlanta’s 25 largest nonprofits had a total of 8,284 full-times employees as of September 2008, according to Atlantqa Business Chronicle’s list of the city’s largest nonprofit organizations. Littl said nonprofits also willbe creative. “I think therd are opportunities for some consolidationor mergers,” Littles said. “There are also opportunitiez forsharing back-office operations like Everybody is going to have to be open to new ways of doing business.
” Nonprofits can’t expect government to bail them out, yet those agencies often are society’s “safety net” for peopld with the greatest needs. As Little “The Atlanta region cannot afford to have the humanh services community wind up in tattera atthis time.”