Posted on January 19, 2006

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Growth in Sector, Federal Cuts Pinch Maryland Nonprofits

Despite a state budget surplus, a healthy state economy, and above average household income, many Maryland nonprofits are finding it difficult to raise the funds they need to meet rising demand for their services, the Baltimore Sun reports.

According to Johns Hopkins University's Center for Civil Society Studies, Maryland nonprofits accounted for 230,000, or one of every eleven, jobs in the state in 2003 — almost twice as many as were generated by the banking, finance, and insurance industries. But with seven thousand new charities having been created between 1996 and 2004, a 60 percent increase, nonprofit leaders in the state are concerned about growing competition for resources within the sector.

Tricia Rubacky, a longtime development consultant, sees and hears signs of that growth in rising attendance at fundraising training sessions offered through the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations and in her conversations with foundation officials, who, she says, are overwhelmed by funding requests. "I know just from talking to some of the larger foundations here, many of them can only fund between 10 percent and 30 percent of the proposals they receive," said Rubacky, who is also development director for Baltimore-based Advocates for Children and Youth.

While a string of natural disasters account for some of the strain on funding resources, experts worry that federal subsidies for nonprofits could be cut significantly once Congress starts to attack the ballooning federal deficit. Lester M. Salamon, director of the Baltimore-based Johns Hopkins center, calls the confluence of changes in the nonprofit funding environment an emerging crisis. "When we get periods [like] we appear to be in, when the government pulls out, then these organizations are in a very tight spot," said Salamon. "I think it is justified in people's minds by this ideological belief that nonprofits are really funded by the private sector, and so we don't really have to worry about it. That's a romantic notion that is not consistent with reality."

For its part, the Maryland Association of Nonprofit Organizations hopes the state will step in when and if cuts at the federal level filter down to the state. "There's a disaster coming down the road with [respect to] funding," said MANO executive director Peter V. Berns.

Smith Hopkins, Jamie. “Funding Tight, But Charities Try to Cope.” Baltimore Sun 1/13/06.

Primary Subject: Philanthropy and Voluntarism
Location(s): Maryland

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