The Nonprofit Finance Fund has announced that it will partner with the California Community Foundation and the Bank of America Charitable Foundation on a $6 million initiative designed to provide Los Angeles-area nonprofits facing financial challenges with working capital loans and financial consulting services.

To help nonprofits in the region optimize their financial decision-making and service delivery, the Nonprofit Sustainability and Effectiveness Initiative will feature a series of workshops, consulting engagements, and in-depth business analyses presented by NFF. “Many Los Angeles nonprofits are facing a ‘perfect storm’ of challenges: demand for services has increased, funding has decreased, and fallout from the California budget crisis adds to financial instability,” said NFF vice president David Greco. “Along with our funding partners, our goal is to support both the near-term survival, and long-term sustainability, of L.A.’s nonprofit organizations.”

In addition to the funds provided by the two foundations, First 5 LA will provide support for organizations working to increase the health, well-being, and learning readiness of children through age five, while the Weingart and California Wellness foundations will provide additional technical assistance to participating nonprofits.

“Funding alone cannot address the significant challenges facing Los Angeles nonprofits,” said Antonia Hernández, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation. “By investing in their financial planning and decision-making capabilities, we’re positioning our grantee organizations to more efficiently and effectively serve the community.”

“Nonprofit Finance Fund and California’s Largest Foundations Launch $6 Million Initiative to Bolster Los Angeles Nonprofits.” Nonprofit Finance Fund Press Release 10/28/09.

Most nonprofit organizations offering retirement benefits to their workers report that these plans are under stress, according to survey results released today by the Johns Hopkins Listening Post Project.

Nonprofits offering “defined benefit plans” (plans with a guaranteed benefit) have been particularly hard hit, with 76 percent reporting that their plans are currently under stress and 43 percent reporting severe or very severe stress. Even those offering “defined contribution plans” (plans with investments controlled by the employee and no guaranteed benefit) have been affected, however, with 58 percent reporting that their plans are under stress.

As a result, organizations have been forced to reduce retirement benefits, scale back employer matches, end future benefit accruals, and deny pension coverage to new employees, or as a last resort, divert resources from program operations. Many smaller organizations have been prevented from offering pension benefits at all.

“Retirement benefits are especially important for nonprofit organizations because they offer a way to help offset the generally lower wages paid to nonprofit workers,” said Lester M. Salamon, report author and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies. “But, given the Pension Protection Act of 2006’s requirement that defined benefit plans have assets in place to cover the full cost of their outstanding benefit obligations, the recent economic crisis, by decimating the value of pension assets, has provoked a crisis for the thousands of nonprofits that offer such plans.”

Other findings from the Johns Hopkins survey include:

More than two-thirds (67 percent) of all survey respondents reported offering some type of retirement benefit plan to their employees. This appears to be higher than the proportion of comparably sized for-profit firms that offer such benefits.

More than half (58 percent) of responding organizations offer a defined contribution plan for workers and about 15 percent offer a defined benefit plan. Because defined benefit plans are more common among larger organizations, the actual share of employees in organizations providing such plans may be greater than these figures suggest.

Coverage of nonprofit workers is extensive: 69 percent of organizations offering defined benefit plans and 54 percent of those offering defined contribution plans indicated that at least half of their employees (including both fulltime and part-time workers) participate in the plans.

To deal with the stress their retirement plans are under, responding organizations have had to make some painful choices:

Among organizations providing defined benefit plans:

28 percent reported prohibiting prohibited new employees from participation;

22 percent reported ending future benefit accruals for all participating employees; and

Another 9 percent have blocked future benefit accruals for a portion of their workers.

Among organizations providing defined contribution plans:

14 percent of those offering an employer match reduced that match; and

Another 3 percent eliminated their match altogether.

Among smaller organizations, those with one to 9 employees, the majority (58 percent) are not able to provide any retirement benefits at all.

“Nonprofit organizations employ the fourth largest workforce of any industry in our country,” noted Peter Goldberg, president and CEO of the Alliance for Children and Families and chair of the Listening Post Project Steering Committee. “We have to make sure that these workers have the protections they need to continue to make the enormous contributions they provide to our communities.”

The 412 nonprofit organizations responding to the Listening Post survey included children and family service agencies, elderly housing and service organizations, community and economic development organizations, museums, theaters, and orchestras.

The full report “Escalating Pension Benefit Costs—Another Threat to Nonprofit Survival?” is available online at http://ccss.jhu.edu.

The Listening Post Project is a collaborative undertaking of the Center for Civil Society Studies at the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies, the Alliance for Children and Families, the Alliance for Nonprofit Management, the American Association of Homes and Services for the Aging, the American Association of Museums, Community Action Partnership, the League of American Orchestras, Lutheran Services in America, Michigan Nonprofit Association, the National Council of Nonprofits, and United Neighborhood Centers of America. Its goal is to monitor the health of the nation’s nonprofit organizations and assess how nonprofits are responding to important economic and policy changes. Support for the Listening Post Project has been provided by the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the Kresge Foundation, the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Surdna Foundation.

College graduates looking for employment in fields such as education and social services could find what they’re looking for at a job fair being held on Friday, Nov. 6.

Sponsored by SER Jobs for Progress-Houston and AVANCE-Houston, the first job fair for nonprofit professionals will take place at the United Way of Greater Houston offices at 50 Waugh Drive.

More than 30 nonprofit organizations will be in attendance and will be recruiting for current and future positions as well as volunteer and internship opportunities. Many of the positions are funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.

Job seekers must pre-register for the event by e-mailing jobfair@serhouston.org or calling Ariana Campos at 713-773-6000 Ext. 140. Entrance to the event is by ticket only.

Source: Houston Business Journal

Atlanta, Ga. / November 3, 2009

Just in time for end-of-year budgeting, nonprofit employers can find salary and benefits information to make solid HR decisions for their organizations with the Opportunity Knocks 2010 Nonprofit Wage and Benefits Report. In a market where every penny has to be spent carefully and bring maximum value, nonprofits can’t afford not to know whether what they’re offering is both competitive and buys the most their money can.

Opportunity Knocks produces this report annually which contains comprehensive salary and benefit information from 2,109 organizations, representing 3,284,943 employees. This national report provides comprehensive data on titles ranging from Executive Director through Receptionist by geographic location and budget size.

Opportunity Knocks conducted its own survey for this report, which is available with nonprofit budgets in mind at an affordable cost of $49.95.

The goal of the report is to help nonprofits:

Evaluate their organization’s jobs, wages and benefits

Determine competitive base salaries

Compare benefits to ensure the most cost effective plans

New to the report this year:

Comparative Data from 2008 for trending perspective

Economic impact insight for context around current market conditions

More titles and breadth of areas of expertise

“With the effects of the economy upon the nonprofit workforce, we have published the Opportunity Knocks 2010 Nonprofit Wage and Benefit Report to help organizations base their critical human resources decisions upon hard numbers and facts.” says Karen Beavor, President and CEO of Opportunity Knocks. “True to our mission, production of this report demonstrates our commitment to lead and support efforts promoting a robust workforce that enables organizations to complete their missions.”

Full information on the report and how to purchase is available online at http://content.opportunityknocks.org/opportunity-knocks-wage-benefits-report/ or by contacting an Opportunity Knocks at 888-656-6257.

About Opportunity Knocks: Opportunity Knocks is the national nonprofit Job Board, HR Resource and Career Development website exclusively on the nonprofit community. For Nonprofit professionals, www.OpportunityKnocks.org is the premier destination to find nonprofit jobs and access valuable resources for developing successful careers in the nonprofit community. For Employers, www.OpportunityKnocks.org is the best way to find qualified nonprofit candidates and receive valuable information that nonprofit organizations need when building successful recruitment, retention and human resource strategies.

Contact: Lynne Norton, Marketing Manager, Opportunity Knocks, 678-916-3066 or lnorton@opportunityknocks.org

Only a sliver of nonprofits across the country plan to increase hiring in the next six months and half anticipate reducing employee bonuses.

That’s according to a report released Monday by Grant Thornton International Ltd., which surveyed 846 CFOs and senior comptrollers from public and private companies, of which 53 worked for nonprofits.

Of the nonprofit executives surveyed, 11 percent say their organizations plan to increase hiring in the next six months and 51 percent will reduce bonuses. Sixty-four percent expect their headcounts to remain the same.

Meanwhile, 55 percent believe the U.S. economy will improve during that six-month span. But just 28 percent expect their organization’s financial prospects to improve.

Source: Biz Journal

In 2008, Gov. Mike Easley of North Carolina named November as “Nonprofit Awareness Month” in recognition of the sector’s contributions to the state.

“North Carolina’s communities are enriched and enlivened by the contributions nonprofits make to the quality of life,” Easley says in a statement. “Every North Carolinian benefits from nonprofits’ vital contributions of strengthening our social fabric, public policy, culture, sense of community and future.”

The state’s nonprofit sector accounts for more than 270,000 jobs and contributes $20 billion a year to the state’s economy.

Spearheaded by the North Carolina Center for Nonprofits, “Nonprofit Awareness Month” will be celebrated with activities organized by local nonprofits.

During last year’s inaugural Nonprofit Awareness Month, the Cumberland Community Foundation held a celebration for more than 70 nonprofit leaders, and the Partnership for Children in Robeson County led a walking tour of 16 nonprofits in downtown Lumberton.