Survey: Nonprofits in the Evansville region need more giving, volunteers
John T. Martin
EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Local nonprofit agencies meet substantial community needs, but those same agencies have critical needs of their own, especially for funding and workers.
Nonprofits are preparing for the holiday season, as well as the post-Thanksgiving worldwide observance of Giving Tuesday. As they do so, the Welborn Baptist Foundation has released new data that highlights the challenges and opportunities such agencies face.
The foundation commissioned the study along with Diehl Consulting Group. It’s the first local report of its kind.
Nonprofit agencies are an economic driver for the Tri-State. Evansville is the nonprofit hub of the region – about 70 percent of agencies participating in the study are based in the city – but such agencies serve people in about 40 area counties.
Yet, there’s a consistent need for human capital, both paid and volunteer, to carry out the missions of those local agencies, according to the report.
The quest for dollars, meanwhile, also is never-ending. In some cases, the agencies’ mere existence hangs in the balance.
Most local nonprofits work with an annual budget of less than $500,000 and have few financial reserves. In fact, half of all nonprofits have less than six months of revenue in reserves, according to the study.
Three in five local nonprofits provide human, health or education services. (Human services are defined as youth development, community restoration or meeting basic needs). Other nonprofits have missions such as animal welfare or promoting arts and humanities.
Many nonprofits offer specialized services for distinct populations, such as people with disabilities, nonwhite racial and ethnic groups, aging populations, urban and rural populations, religious minority groups or gender and sexual minority groups.
Local nonprofits “are the boots on the ground. They are the ones providing services to people in need,” said Candice Perry, nonprofit excellence officer with the Welborn Baptist Foundation. “What we know is nonprofits often work with small staff, they rely on volunteers, often don’t have a lot in reserves. Just the fact that they have been able to increase services tells us there’s a whole lot of need out there.”
Here are some key findings in the survey:
* Private donors still make up the largest segment of local nonprofit funding. However, it is smaller than the national average, and this could be called an area of concern. Funding for programming is viewed as the biggest need.
Locally, only 44 percent of nonprofit revenue comes from private donors, compared to more than 70 percent nationally. The report states that, in general, nonprofits should seek a funding mixture that consists largely of private donors and smaller percentages of grants.
Perry said one of her goals moving forward to is discover why local private giving to nonprofits is comparatively low in the Tri-State. She plans a lot of conversation on that subject with agencies, corporations and others about how to increase giving.
The foundation plans to do an updated survey in five years.
The new data “provides a springboard to ask the questions, talk to people who are in the space, and five years from now see a change,” said Kevin Bain, who retires this year as Welborn Baptist Foundation CEO.
* Other than funding, recruiting and maintaining staff and volunteers are the largest challenges agencies face.
Nonprofit employment often comes with minimal paid benefits, according to the survey, and responding agencies said their most active volunteers in many cases are aging. In short: local nonprofits could use an infusion of young blood.
* An active, engaged board of directors is important for an organization’s transparency and credibility.
Four of five local agencies responding to the survey said a potential board member’s “willingness to give time” to an organization is an important consideration.
“Nobody can do it by themselves,” said Jeremy Evans, executive director of Dream Center, an Evansville-based nonprofit that caters to local youth. “Every great effort needs a strong team. At a nonprofit, one avenue comes from a board. We need people who are willing to do the work, make strategic decisions and communicate with the community.”
“You need a board to take care of things that can’t be done by one person alone on the administrative staff,” said Angie Richards Cooley, executive director of Ark Crisis Child Care Center in Evansville. “They don’t have to get in the weeds day to day, but they can focus on the big picture of the organization.”
* Local nonprofit agencies collaborate with one another, but there is room for more collaboration. Examples of this could include shared staff, office space and administrative costs.
In many cases, local nonprofits serve the same clientele but in different ways. It’s common for one nonprofit to refer someone to services offered by another.
“We have to work together,” Cooley said. “If there’s no level of working together, we are just serving our own little pieces,”
The Welborn Baptist Foundation listed several goals that it hopes a follow-up survey of local nonprofits in 2023 will reflect.
By then, it’s hoped that more nonprofits will have greater than six months of cash reserves, that more nonprofits will have eclipsed 50 percent of budgets coming from individual donors, more agencies collaborating to trim administrative and staff costs, and implementation of personal involvement plans for board members.
Data in the survey will be useful for local nonprofits as they plan their futures, according to leaders of local agencies.
“I’m really thankful for Welborn Baptist Foundation’s investment in our community,” Evans said.
More:How you can help in Evansville this holiday season?
More:'Surviving the holidays' is task for Evansville family who lost son in 'weird event'