“For many that rely on philanthropy… this is not jus a tough year. This is going to be a tough era.” — Patrick Rooney, Center of Philanthropy at Indiana University
“Ugh! What’s our organization supposed to do?” one client asked dejectedly upon reading the statement above in a recent publication based on the 2012 Giving USA report.
Patrick Rooney, the executive director of the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, was reflecting on what has become the second slowest giving recovery from a recession since 1971. What give many of us in the nonprofit sector additional anxiety is that – as Rooney suggests – it will be as much as ten years before we regain the ground lost in philanthropic giving due to the “Great Recession.” Others are even posturing that the recovery could take even longer due to the increased uncertainty among donors because of the challenges in the global economy, political gridlock domestically and a host of other anxieties (health care, the aging population, etc.).
So, what are we supposed to do in leading our organizations?
