The Austin community has more nonprofits per capita than any other city in Texas, according to the I Live Here I Give Here Web site, a Central Texas campaign created to encourage local philanthropy.
These organizations, which total around 6,300, are an integral part of Austin’s overall identity and success, said Kevin Patterson, general director of Austin Lyric Opera.
“Nonprofits and the arts are critical to the continuing growth of the corporate community and to the growth of this city,” he said.
In the past year, 448 of 830 Austin nonprofits reported a drop in donations, according to a survey conducted in July by Greenlights for NonProfit Success and United Way Capital Area. Yet 66 percent of those surveyed witnessed an increase in demand for their services, leaving many nonprofits struggling to generate enough revenue to sustain business.
“I don’t know anyone who hasn’t been affected by the economic storm,” said Robert Faires, panel moderator and senior arts editor for The Austin Chronicle.
Eighteen percent of those surveyed feared they might have to cease operation due to the sharp drop in donations caused by the downturn.
The noticeable decrease in philanthropy can be contributed to the immense pressure imposed upon individual giving, said Peter Frumkin, director of the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas at Austin.
“There is not a lot of money floating around for the public anywhere, from the government or from individuals,” he said. “When money is tight, funding art and nonprofits is just not a priority.”
Frumkin said there are two options nonprofits can employ to generate income: fundraising and costing cutting, and entrepreneurial endeavors.
Within fundraising, he said nonprofits can focus on revenue generation and limiting expenses, while entrepreneurial endeavors involve sharing employees, altering targeted markets and developing new business ideas. The best approach to avoiding financial difficulties involves both options, Frumkin said.
Many nonprofits are facing a crucial turning point where significant challenges are arising that need to be overcome, said Bijoy Goswami, founder of Bootstrap Austin. Goswami, whose company has become a resource for emerging entrepreneurs, calls this point the valley of death and said it should be used as a place to innovate.
“Organizations don’t succeed because they immediately know the solution to every problem they faced,” he said. “They had to innovate, and think ‘what else do I have to offer?’”
Nonprofits should also consider what other organizations can offer them, said Victoria Corcoran, owner of Corcoran & Co.
Corcoran & Co., a fundraising and nonprofit consulting firm in Austin, specializes in helping nonprofits do just that. Corcoran said there are a multitude of things that can get done for free by tapping into available resources in donors, leadership boards and other nonprofits.
“Most of the time it isn’t money that is needed, but a resource that you cannot just go to the store and buy,” Corcoran said. “There are different types of capital, not just monetary.”
Patterson said utilizing social capital is key and engaging in shared services is a sound business practice for nonprofits. Organizations should collaborate to share and stretch the resources they already have and increase the efficiency of their collective services, he said.
Despite evident success of enterprising, cooperative techniques, only 11 percent of the nonprofits surveyed said they anticipated sharing services in the next year. Only 4 percent have already done so.
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Similar workshops, conferences and events continue to be held throughout the city of Austin in hopes of offering further enhancement and growth strategies for nonprofit organizations during the economic crisis.
The workshop in this article, called “Weathering the Economic Storm,” was part of the city’s Cultural Arts Division, which plans to host another workshop on Oct. 29.
- Entitled “Social Media Tools,” the workshop will feature John Lebkowsky, a prominent social commentator and partner at Social Web Strategies and Plutopia. The workshop will be held at Austin City Hall in the Boards and Commissions Room.
For more information, visit the Cultural Arts Division Web site.
Greenlights for Nonprofit Success and the Center for Community-Based and Nonprofit Organizations at Austin Community College also host a variety of helpful events in Austin.
Below are some of the events listed for the upcoming months. More information about each event and additional event listings can be found of their Web sites.
- Oct. 7 Successful Grants Write Now – a workshop to teach the basic skills to prospect for potential funders, prepare a powerful case statement and develop grant budgets
- Oct. 8 Business Planning for Nonprofits – a workshop designed to teach nonprofits about the elements of a successful business plan
- Oct. 22 Board Summit – a collaboration of prospective board members with nonprofit organizations that can utilize their skills and interests
- Oct. 28 Webinar: Getting Your Message to the Media on a Dime! – a webinar that will provide participants with the skills needed to produce a comprehensive media relations program with a limited budget
- Oct. 29 Financial Management in Difficult Times – a course that teaches nonprofits about scenario-based budgeting, cost-cutting ideas and other useful, real-life strategies that have been employed when revenue is down
- Nov. 5 Creating an Annual Fundraising Plan: A Working Workshop – a workshop designed to teach nonprofits the essential components of an annual plan template
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