• Home
  • About
    • About
    • Policies
  • Submissions
    • Op-eds
    • News / Announcements
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

eJewish Philanthropy

Your Jewish Philanthropy Resource

  • News Bits
  • Jewish Education
  • Readers Forum
  • Research
  • Show Search
Hide Search
You are here: Home / The Blog / Debt Crisis: a Crossroads for Nonprofits

Debt Crisis: a Crossroads for Nonprofits

August 10, 2011 By eJP

by Todd Cohen

The “new normal” prophesied for the charitable marketplace in the wake of the implosion of the U.S. economy nearly three years ago merely hinted at the pain nonprofits and philanthropy can expect, along with the fundamental changes they will need to make, as a result of the U.S. debt crisis.

Nonprofits and philanthropy still are running on the creaky frame of the charitable business model designed a century ago and tweaked in the past decade or so through hands-on venture philanthropy and nonprofits’ retooling their operations to meet funders’ growing demand for metrics, accountability and impact.

While the economic collapse in 2008 sounded alarms about structural flaws in the way nonprofits and philanthropy operate, the debt crisis, while temporarily averted, reflects congenital economic and social problems and should trigger fear and trembling among nonprofits and their supporters, opening their eyes to the need to reinvent the way they work.

As an integral part of a global marketplace transformed by technology and by sweeping changes in the structure and movement of capital and labor, the U.S. economy and workforce are undergoing radical upheaval.

That up-ending of our marketplace and culture will put enormous pressure on nonprofits to overhaul the way they operate as businesses and serve clients and donors.

And that will require that they focus on how best to learn, lead and grow, taking a brutally honest look at their own organizations, adapting to a marketplace in which change is continual, rapid, overwhelming and unsettling.

So they need to focus on what really matters, and step away from whatever diverts them from their mission.

Philanthropy is about community, and nonprofits are in business serve people and places in need.

To be effective in their job of healing, repairing and improving their communities, nonprofits must create a culture of philanthropy that engages their employees, boards, donors, volunteers and partners in the vision of making their communities better places to live and work.

So a nonprofit truly must know its community and itself, and must work continually to work with its internal and external “family” to improve its programs, operations and support.

A nonprofit must know and build on its strengths, and recognize and address its weaknesses.

A nonprofit must know its supporters and help them understand critical community problems and see how investing their time, money and know-how will help fix those problems.

A nonprofit also must recognize that its employees are people, not interchangeable parts, and represent a core organizational asset as valuable and worthy of attention, investment and cultivation as are donors.

So nonprofits must create a business model that values employees’ contribution, invests in their professional development, can adapt to their need for flexibility in balancing work and life in a complicated and often-unpredictable marketplace, and can help them see how the purpose of their work is to address community problems that affect the lives not only of the organization’s clients, but those of employees as well.

Talk about change and leadership is cheap, and it flows freely among nonprofit consultants and “experts.”

But generating change and providing leadership are complex, ongoing jobs, and any nonprofit that wants to better serve its community first must be willing to change the way it does business.

If nonprofits truly want to fulfill their mission, they need to treat the debt crisis and the firestorm it will unleash in our economy and culture as an opportunity to get their own shops in order so they can help our communities climb out of the seemingly bottomless hole America has dug for itself.

Todd Cohen is editor and publisher of Philanthropy Journal; reprinted with permission.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: The Blog

Click here to Email This Post Email This Post to friends or colleagues!

Reader Interactions

Primary Sidebar

Join The Conversation

What's the best way to follow important issues affecting the Jewish philanthropic world? Our Daily Update keeps you on top of the latest news, trends and opinions shaping the landscape, providing an invaluable source for inspiration and learning.
Sign Up Now
For Email Marketing you can trust.

Continue The Conversation

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Recent Comments

  • Marty Kander on BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment
  • Esther Shapiro on BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment
  • Judy Aron on BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment
  • Jeremy Broekman on BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment
  • Cindy Chazan on BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment

Most Popular Recent Posts

  • BBYO receives historic $25 million Pledge to Support Women’s Leadership and Empowerment
  • Words to Avoid – 2019 Edition
  • Being Heard: What We Owe Jewish Community Professionals
  • Redefining Jewish Education: Federations’ Goals for a New Century
  • Caregiving – The Big Issue No One is Talking About

Categories

Archives

Footer

What We Do

eJewish Philanthropy highlights news, resources and thought pieces on issues facing our Jewish philanthropic world in order to create dialogue and advance the conversation. Learn more.

Top 40 Philanthropy Blogs and Websites to Follow in 2019

Copyright © 2019 · eJewish Philanthropy · All Rights Reserved