THE CHRONICLE OF
PHIL A NTHROPY®
The Newspaper of the Nonprofit World
Volume XXV No. 12 • May 9, 2013 • $5
Charities Veer From
Record Government
Funds to Cutbacks
By Doug Donovan
and Emily Gipple
LONG BEFORE Congress let automatic federal spending cuts take effect in March, nonprofits tarted lobbying furiously to protect government money that they—and many of the people they
serve—depend on.
Several nonprofits created Web sites detailing what
it means that $42-billion in across-the-board cuts
are falling evenly on nearly every domestic program.
They point to the children who can’t get access to Head
Start, poor elderly people who can’t get housing or food,
and the vast array of other services nonprofits provide
using federal dollars.
Their pleas grew more intense last month as charities joined forces to ask Congress to restore funds to
social-service programs as swiftly as they moved to
replenish the budget for air-traffic controllers to end
long waits at airports.
But what goes largely unmentioned amid the increasingly loud advocacy is that charities have received record government aid for years before they
faced today’s climate of austerity.
Over the past decade, state, local, and federal governments have been expanding their largess at a faster rate than America’s foundations, corporations, and
individual donors, a new Chronicle study finds.
Feels Like a Triple Hit
From 2000 to 2010, the money charities received
from governments at all levels increased 77 percent, to
$215-billion (not counting the money that goes to col-
Continued on Page 12
VOLUN TEERS PREPARE FOOD BOXES AT THE OREGON FOOD BANK
DANIEL ROO T
How Charities Cope With Cuts in State and Federal Support
A crisis center in
Florida doubles the
number of people
it serves by running an ambulance
business.
PAGE 14
Oregon’s antihun-ger charities dig
into financial
reserves amid
soaring demand
for food.
PAGE 15
An education group
in Massachusetts
grows by aggressively seeking
government aid.
PAGE 16
In Arizona, a day-care center that
serves low-income
families teeters on
the edge.
PAGE 17
Federal stimulus
money offers
relief, temporarily,
to a social-service
group in Nebraska.
PAGE 18
Leaders for the Future
THE CHRONICLE OF PHILAN THROP Y •
CE-1
PULLOUT SUPPLEMENT
Donors Await Boy Scouts Decison on Gay Ban
MAY 9, 2013
2013
Continuing-Education Guide
Jakada Imani, of the Ella Baker
Center for Human Rights (left),
Michael Hill, soon to join Youth
for Understanding USA, and Celena
Roldán, of Erie Neighborhood House,
all participated in intensive leadership training that led to chief executive jobs
BENMARGOT/APIMAGES
Learning
to Lead
KRISTIEKAHNS
A new wave of training programs, shaped by the challenges of a bad economy,
focus on helping nonprofit executives solve problems they encounter every day.
INSIDE: Index and listings of advertisers PAGECE- 7
By Debra E. Blum
DONORS ACROSS THE COUNTRY have suspended giv- ing to the Boy Scouts of America in anticipa- tion of a national vote this month on a controversial proposal to ease the organization’s anti-gay membership policies.
The proposal, which would lift the
ban on gay scouts but leave intact the
exclusion of gay leaders, comes after
years of protests and recent surveys
are finding that a majority of corporate sponsors are against the organization’s current membership policies,
while foundations and major donors
are split on it.
Scouting officials, donors, advocacy
groups, and observers of the long-running debate over
whether the 103-year-old group should allow openly
gay kids and adults in its ranks, say gifts totaling
hundreds of thousands of dollars are at stake with
both the vote and the continuing controversy over the
way the charity is dealing with the issue.
“This is a battle the Boy Scouts have been in since
the 1970s,” says Paul Strunk, a col-
lege fundraiser who wrote an aca-
demic thesis on the membership poli-
cies of the Boy Scouts. “They’re prob-
ably going to leave money on the table
either way—either the conservatives
or the liberals will pull out their dol-
lars—but it’s time to finally deal with
the issue.”
Among the donations to the Boy
Scouts on hold until this month’s
vote:
n A $20,000 check to the Golden Spread Council, a
local Scouts group in Amarillo, Tex., sits on the desk
ERIC GAY/AP IMAGES
Continued on Page 7
A new generation of training programs,
transformed by the challenges of leading in a
bad economy, help nonprofit executives hone
their skills in working together to solve big
problems.
See more inside our pull-out supplement on
continuing education
for nonprofit employees.
Driven by Data
n A Bay Area social-service
charity’s embrace of Big
Data helped it win millions
in grants, reward high-performing employees, and
serve clients better.
Page 20
