Metro Atlanta is home to thousands of nonprofit organizations, many providing expertise and efficient delivery of essential services in close collaboration with local, state and the federal government agencies.
Leveraging the philanthropy of our city’s foundation and corporate community to address systemic issues is an Atlanta hallmark. Other cities have envied the close cooperation of our civic, corporate and philanthropic leaders in working together to find solutions.
This commonwealth of interests — and the wherewithal to address many of these issues — is being threatened by some disturbing trends and active reconsideration of priorities by elected officials, particularly at the federal level.
- The National Philanthropic Trust notes a nationwide multiyear decline in charitable donations.
- The same study cites a decadelong decline in the number of households making charitable contributions, as well as a decline in real terms of all giving.
- The DOGE, the Trump administration’s effort to “eliminate waste and fraud,” has curtailed federal government support of some nonprofits, the result of which will throttle, diminish or eliminate some nonprofits’ ability to fulfill their missions.
Despite robust budgets and considerable financial support from the philanthropic and corporate community, even storied organizations receive federal grants that enable them to provide services. That list includes the Salvation Army, our city’s largest provider of services to the homeless; Boys & Girls Clubs; the foremost provider of after-school programs for students in our city; and the YMCA, Atlanta’s largest child care provider.
The social safety net — created by the interdependent collaboration of nonprofits, the philanthropic and corporate community and the government — is fraying.
Expressions of anxiety or fear among Atlanta nonprofits is something you’re unlikely to have heard about. The polarized political climate has chilled many nonprofit leaders from speaking out publicly. But many nonprofits and their boards are urgently grappling with the real possibility of imminent financial peril.
Atlanta’s most generous philanthropies — and the equally civic-minded corporate powerhouses like Coca-Cola, Georgia Power, Delta, UPS and Chick-fil-A — are unmatched resources that prove time and again their willingness to partner and invest in developing transformational solutions to address our community’s acute crises and long-term issues.
Their wisdom, their perspective and their financial strength are often the spark that brings the public and private sector together in search of a collaborative solution to our most pressing issues. But they can’t be the last resort to address every urgent and burgeoning social need that our nonprofits seek to remedy.
Real life steels nonprofits for challenges. Resources are always scarce. Many operate on a razor’s edge, juggling financial instability but executing cautiously, confident in their ability to adapt.
Some nonprofits derive a modest sum from the taxpayer — many less than 10% of their funds. Others, which perform “last chance” essential services, may derive more than 80% of their funds from government.
Collectively, nonprofits are a potent economic force. The Georgia Center for Nonprofits reports that the 14,000 nonprofits in Metro Atlanta employ roughly 15% of the total workforce — about 525,000 people — and accounted for expenditures (salaries and operating expenses) of more than $13.4 billion. And yet, the taxpayer, through federal government, provides just 7%, or less than $1 billion of that total.
But the danger posed by a loss of federal dollars can be catastrophic — a decisive rupture of a social service that is the last best hope for some citizens to avoid hunger, illness and ruin.
Nonprofit employees are not on the government payroll. They are committed professionals who are selfless, socially minded, fiscally responsible and driven by their passion for a just society that affords opportunity to all. They’re also your neighbors and friends.
What can be done to preserve and protect our nonprofits? Now is the time for nonprofits to:
- Aggressively tell their stories
- Emphasize that their efforts represent the best of our community’s values
- Explain to elected representatives, civic and business leaders and their neighbors that their work is essential to a well-functioning society;
- Show that the time and money invested in nonprofits deliver overwhelming impact — and at far less cost than government-run programs.
The cost of government support of nonprofits is a nominal. The impact of that support is essential.
And the benefits that nonprofits provide is enormous. The value to society is nothing less than our humanity.
Credit: Rob Baskin/contributed
Credit: Rob Baskin/contributed
Credit: Dave Fitzgerald/contributed
Credit: Dave Fitzgerald/contributed
Credit: Handout
Credit: Handout
Dave Fitzgerald, Rob Baskin and Kevin Riley are principals of Sage Communications Advisors, communications and marketing advisers to nonprofit organizations. Riley is the former editor-in-chief of The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
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