Economic Crisis Resources
Economic Crisis Resource Center
We've put together a list of learning opportunities, tips, tactics, and strategies to help you navigate through the economic downturn.
Resources
Background on the Downturn
This American Life Podcast – The Giant Pool of Money explains the downturn from housing crisis to Wall Street meltdown.
The Nonprofit Finance Fund has a FAQ page dedicated to answering general questions about the recession.
Fundraising
Fieldstone Alliance offers 20 suggestions of where you can look for emergency funding.
The Association of Fundraising Professionals offers a free survival kit for fundraising in a bad economy.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy offers tips for enlisting more female donors to support your cause.
Forbes looks at how organizations have been successful in raising funds during a recessed economy.
Fundraising Success has five tips to help you continue to fund your missions.
Fundraising Breakthroughs Blog – David Robinson-Slemp, development director of Joe's Movement Emporium, offers advice for working with major donors.
The Harvard Business Review has tips for taking strategic advantage of the downturn.
Los Angeles Times Reporter Mike Boehm looks at the creative ways that art organizations are coping with the crisis.
M & R Strategic Services explains how to have a strong fundraising campaign in a weak economy.
Network for the Good offers tips for making your fundraising efforts recession-proof.
The Nonprofit Center offers advice for maintaining your donor base in the current market.
Seven Fundraising Tips for Surviving 2008 – The Agitator is a free online resource that provides fundraising and advocacy strategies, trends, and tips. Included in its resources is a list of seven fundraising tips to help your organization survive the economic downturn.
Lawrence Kopp of The T.A.S.C. Group writes about the importance of diversifying your fundraising strategies.
The Wall Street Journal has tips for figuring out what to do when your donors are unable to financially keep their pledges.
Board Involvement
Fast Company.com has tips on how best to leverage your board in a recessing economy.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy hosted an online chat about how to inspire your board to raise money.
Communication & Marketing Strategies
Blogger Chris Brogan offers up 25 ways that you can use the social media to cope with the downturn.
Harvard Business Publishing's Rosabeth Moss Kanter explains the importance of having all of our employees engage in marketing during a recession.
Katya Andersen, author of Robin Hood Marketing, offers up six communication strategies for surviving.
Slideshare allows users to post and share slideshow presentations. Its Business-Management section has a number of useful presentations about the economy and offers viewers ideas about how to communicate with positive language.
Engaging Audiences is a new report from the Wallace Foundation that explores strategies arts organizations can employ to build audiences and promote long-term organizational health.
Health & Well-being
The DC Department of Mental Health has help for stressful economic times.
Health economist and management consultant Jane Sarasohn-Kahn breaks down the health impacts of the downturn.
Mental Health America has advice for living your life during challenges.
Opinion Pieces & Editorials
Social Velocity Blog examines the issue of asking for money from donors during a recession.
Nonprofit consultant Mike Burns offers his take on the Federal bailout at his blog, Nonprofit Board Crisis.
Links to Other Economic Survival Guides
About.com has created the Nonprofit Hard Times Survival Guide.
The President of Charity Navigator blogs about how financial margin and an organization's mission are crucial to making it through a recession.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy has also compiled a list of resources, statistics, and live discussions to help you learn about how charities are dealing with a turbulent economy.
The Council of Community Services of New York State, Inc. explains why risk is essential to achieving organizational success during difficult times.
The Donors Forum has dedicated a section of its website that can help in formulating short and long term strategies to cope with the downturn.
The National Council of Nonprofits has created a Nonprofit Economic Vitality Center to help both funders and nonprofits cope with the recession.
Network for the Good has a free, 45-page downturn survival guide filled with tips, strategies, and a coupon to save 50% on their online fundraising services.
Nonprofit 911 – A coalition of eight regional organizations have collaborated to provide you with events, resources, and a place for peer discussion.
Other Links of Interest
A free Basic Risk Management Tutorial helps you to integrate risk management in day-to-day operations.
Blue Avocado offers realistic and practical advice that you can implement starting today.
The Chicago Tribune offers up tips for finding a job during the recession.
CFO.com has five tips to help nonprofit chief financial officers.
The Chronicle of Philanthropy tells us that despite the bad economy, 70 percent of Americans still plan to give during the holiday season.
The DC Bar Pro Bono Program provides free webinars, email legal alerts, free legal counsel to nonprofits, and more through their Community Economic Development Project. Their websites, www.LawHelp.org/dc and www.ProBono.net/dc contain specific content for the most common legal situations encountered by nonprofit groups.
Financial Times finds that more from nonprofits now, means less in the future.
Forbes offers up tips for managing your organization after layoffs.
The Foundation Center is extending the hours of its live chat reference service. You can get answers to your questions about foundations, fundraising, nonprofit management, and related topics from a Foundation Center librarian.
The Foundation Center is also offering three, free webinars on the challenges and opportunities, information about corporate philanthropy, and arts funding in an economic crisis.
The Kennedy Center is offering free consulting services and resources to nonprofit arts organizations through their new webste, www.artsincrisis.org.
LarsonAllen CPAs and Consultants has published a guide, How to Weather the Recession as a Nonprofit.
The New Yorker's James Surowiecki weighs the benefits of taking financial risks during uncertain times.
The New York Times explains how volunteers can serve as a lifeline to your nonprofit during the recession.
Nonprofits Assistance Fund - Executive Director Kate Barr blogs about why you should act now rather than later. She also posts about how you can view the current economic climate in a positive light by operating as though your organization was in a turnaround.
The Nonprofit Finance Fund, in collaboration with Fiscal Management Associates, offers a free webinar, tools, forms, and tips to manage cash flow, revenue, and expenses during the recession.
The Nonprofit Finance Fund has created a comprehensive package of services for nonprofits including advice, coaching, planning tools and a variety of loan products to help them manage through the recession while positioning them for long-term financial and programmatic strength.
The Nonprofit Law Blog speaks about insolvency and how you can work with your board to overcome the issue.
The Nonprofit Risk Management Center – George Thread, PhD provides insight on both the threats and opportunities that a recession can bring to your nonprofit.
The NOVA Foreclosure Network is a resource for those facing foreclosure in the Northern Virginia region.
Katherina Rosqueta, executive director of the Center for High Impact Philanthropy, shares her opinion with Philanthropy News Digest on how to perform "philanthropic triage" on your organization.
Stanford Social Innovation Review – Author Todd Cohen explains how nonprofits can gear up to survive the tough economy.