Char­i­ties in Amer­ica have suf­fered in two dif­fer­ent ways dur­ing this reces­sion. First, through a decrease in giv­ing; sec­ond, through an increase in demand for their services.

The dou­ble effect has been too much for some char­i­ties to bear. The effects of the econ­omy have caused some non-profits to close and stop tak­ing care of those in need.

From the Janesville, Wis­con­sin Gazette Extra, this Asso­ci­ated Press arti­cle writ­ten by David Crary talks to some char­ity lead­ers on the effects of the recession.

The casu­al­ties so far include count­less needy clients los­ing assis­tance and thou­sands of non­profit work­ers who’ve been laid off. Some local char­i­ties have shut down; even many of the largest nation­wide oper­a­tions have made painful cut­backs in staff, spend­ing and programs.

“Non­prof­its are gen­er­ally at the whim of the econ­omy … but we’ve never seen any­thing like this,” says the Rev. Larry Sny­der, pres­i­dent of Catholic Char­i­ties USA. “Increas­ing num­bers of our own vol­un­teers and employ­ees have been forced to become clients of our services.”

The cut­backs are forc­ing char­i­ties to rethink how they oper­ate and make changes that are likely to out­live the reces­sion. Non­prof­its, like reg­u­lar busi­nesses, are learn­ing to do more with less. Those that sur­vive will emerge more efficient.

“It gives you a mind­set to be more cre­ative,” Amer­i­can Heart Asso­ci­a­tion CEO Nancy Brown says. “We’re think­ing even bet­ter and more inno­v­a­tively than we were 10 months ago.”

Num­bers help illus­trate the mag­ni­tude of the challenges.

Giv­ing to social-service char­i­ties fell by 12.7 per­cent in 2008, accord­ing to the Giv­ing USA Foun­da­tion, and there’s been lit­tle evi­dence of a resur­gence so far this year. Simul­ta­ne­ously, many state and local gov­ern­ments are cut­ting back on fund­ing for non­prof­its or delay­ing pay­ments as they strug­gle to assem­ble their budgets.

That dou­ble hit to char­i­ties’ rev­enue comes at a time when the national poverty rate has reached an 11-year high of 13.2 percent.

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