Nonprofits statewide are bracing for a tough year of budget cuts, a fallout of reductions in state grant money for the 2009 fiscal year.
The Delaware General Assembly approved an 8 percent cut to the Grant-In-Aid bill on the last day of the legislative session June 30 to help balance the state’s $3.3 billion budget. The reductions affected every organization except volunteer fire stations.
In New Castle County, some NPOs remain undaunted, others worry that the effects could be devastating, and others are trying to take a pragmatic approach.
For instance, at the Edgemoor Community Center, Executive Director Shawn Stevens said that while grant reductions are unfortunate, they are not unexpected in an economy where everyone is facing difficult choices.
The community center will receive $23,300 less this year. That reduction will force the center to consider staff cuts, said Stevens. Programs like summer camp and early childhood care are too important to cut completely, so Edgemoor must find small ways to save money and hope it adds up, he said.
To make things even more difficult, the community center is facing a 40 percent increase in energy costs and declining support from the
“It is survival mode for many of us at his time. Can we keep going?” he said. “It is time to look at pennies, crunch the budget and see what we can do.”
The community center will search for other forms of funding to make up the difference, but it is a struggle to capture grants from big donors, since they usually choose to support organizations with broader reach, said Stevens. Still, he was confident Edgemoor would be able to find enough money to continue their programs, because part of being a nonprofit means being fiscally responsible.
Brandywine Senior Center
The Brandywine Senior Center will be forced to cut programs because it took a larger-than-average 10 percent hit in grant money from the state. Moreover, it is the center’s only form of income, said Coordinator Phyllis Hicks.
The $23,515 cut could be devastating, she said.
The senior center has already cut its yoga class for the summer and has begun charging $1 to use the center’s bus. More program cuts are probably on the way, Hicks said. For example, center will not be able to rehire a fitness instructor next year and some trips, like visits to the beach and
Many seniors depend on the
The center already stopped running its bus on Thursdays. If it is forced to reduce bus service further, hundreds of senior citizens could miss meals, said Hicks.
“The General Assembly should have looked hard to cut somewhere other than senior centers” she said. “It should have been a last resort because we are so vitally important.”
Moreover, the cuts put centers like
With less money available, center can’t consider starting new programs – but that could hurt their chances for grant money in the future, said Hicks, because the annual Grant-In-Aid evaluation heavily weighs expansions and new programs.
Delaware Nature Society
Grant cuts are never a good thing for a nonprofit organization, but support from community members can help ease the pain, said Michael Riska, executive director of the Delaware Nature Society (DNS), which will see a $3,800 grant cut.
“Everything adds up, and $3,800 is a lot for any nonprofit organization,” he said. “We will have to make up the difference.”
To do so, Riska said the DNS will try to recruit more members to its ranks of 8,000, ask volunteers to step up further, and search diligently for grants from foundations and other sources, because the last thing DNS wants to do is cut programs.
Foundation support is more difficult to get in hard economic times because there are more organizations vying for the same funds, said Mark Chura, executive director of Delaware Greenways.
The $3,200 cut his organization will see is not crippling, Chura said, but Delaware Greenways will have to be more diligent in finding money from other sources, like corporate donations.
Nonprofits are dependent on the kindness of others, Chura said, and hopefully kindness has deep pockets despite economic conditions. That is why he expects people who see the work his organization does to preserve green space in their backyards will be more inclined to donate.
