Help for Non-Profits and Churches

America is in tough times. As a nonprofit organization that helps other non-profits find support for their ministries, we have seen a large number of new contacts this past year as churches and other organizations struggle to keep themselves afloat.

In November, unemployment rates hit a staggering 10.2%, the approval rating for Congress is a mere 25.5%, the approval rating for our President is 51.7% and only 38.8% of Americans think that America is on the right track (source: RealClearPolitics.com). When you combine that with the fact that the deficit hit an all-time high of $1.42 trillion for the budget year ending September 30th and a decrease in consumer spending in September when compared to August (source: npr.org), it is justified that people are uneasy.

When people are faced with hard times, donations to nonprofit organizations decrease. While the numbers are not yet available for the United States, most experts feel that the overall amount of support will be down compared to last year. And this trend is not just in America. In fact, the CBC News in Canada reports that there is a significant decrease in donations to food banks; and the Guardian in the United Kingdom reports that giving to charities is down an estimated 11%.

Strangely enough, according to a recent USA Today / Gallup Poll, donations to churches and other religious organizations have remained the same and volunteerism has actually increased. While this may seem counter ...