Social Currency

"Over the past 3 years, the length of stays at our shelter has increased from 11 to 27 to 33 nights, because of a lack of affordable housing. We are scrambling to come up with creative solutions to shelter women for whom we have no room. Economic recovery is still not a reality here."

-Sarah Lange, Abby's House

This is a quote from one of the 4,607 respondents to NFF's just-released Annual State of the Sector Survey. If this sounds a lot like your organization's situation, you are not alone. This year's respondents tell a collective story of a sector still stretched thin, with organizations feeling distant from their funders and boards, and staff facing more work with less money and fewer benefits to take home. While the recession may be over, the nonprofit financial crisis isn't. Here are a few facts from the survey (to check out detailed results and analysis, visit the main survey page):

• 85% of nonprofits experienced an increase in the demand for services in 2011.
• This is on top of years of increased demand: previous NFF surveys found that 77% of nonprofits experienced an increase in demand in 2010; 71% experienced an increase in 2009; and 73% experienced an increase in 2008.
• 88% expect an increase in demand for services in 2012. 57% have 3 months or less cash-on-hand. 87% said their financial outlook won't get any better in 2012.

NFF conducts the State of the Sector Survey to provide the sector with concrete data to act as a compass for decision-making. While there are some glimmers of financial improvement, the fact remains that people who need nonprofit services are slipping through the holes in the safety net. In the current system, nonprofits cannot keep up. And with government funding on the decline and private funding not making up the difference, there are no signs that things will get better any time soon.

We'll be taking a closer look at the results over the next few months and posting them here. In the meantime, take a look at our new Survey Analyzer. In our efforts to make the data more readily available to even more people in the sector, we created a tool that allows you to filter the results by geography, sector, and/or annual expense. Please share with us here what you find!