LI charities fear they will fail to meet demand

About a quarter of Long Island's nonprofits that responded to a new survey to be released this month say they won't be able to meet the demand for their services next year in the face of decreased donations and a troubled economy.

"Even though the recession supposedly is over, everybody -- especially the nonprofit sector -- is still feeling the ramifications of it," said Ken Cerini, managing partner of the CPA firm Cerini and Associates, which issued the survey. "That came through pretty loud and clear on the survey."

The seventh annual Long Island Not-For-Profit Survey includes data gathered from 152 of the region's roughly 3,000 nonprofits -- slightly more than the 124 that responded to last year's survey. The Long Island chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals plans to release it at the organization's Philanthropy Day event on Nov. 19.

More than three-quarters of responding nonprofits said their fundraising streams remained stagnant or decreased this year as compared with last year.

In addition, nonprofits that reported the government as their primary source of funding dropped from 47 percent to 30 percent since last year, a decline partly driven by an end to the federal stimulus money that 17 percent of survey respondents reported receiving in 2009.

For the first time this year, the survey asked directly whether nonprofits believed they would be able to meet the demand for their services next year. Twenty-four percent said they wouldn't be able to.

That reflects reality for the Long Island Council of Churches, which runs emergency food pantries in Nassau and Suffolk counties, said the Rev. Tom Goodhue, executive director.

A combination of difficulties with government contracting and a dropoff in the amount of donated food, has led to problems stocking his Freeport pantry this year, even as the number of people seeking food assistance from his group has increased by 30 percent over 2009, he said."We are certain there will be more people to serve next year," Goodhue said. "We're hoping we can serve more people next year."

Volunteerism appears to be on the rise, with one-third of responding nonprofits reporting an increase. The year before, 21 percent of responding nonprofits reported an increase.

More nonprofits say they plan to give their workers raises than in previous years, and 29 percent of those that are giving raises plan to give substantial ones of 7 percent to 10 percent.

Cerini said that organizations possibly are seeing their investment income increase and are trying to invest in their underpaid staff as a result.

Ann Marie Thigpen, director of the Long Island Center for Nonprofit Leadership at Adelphi University, said that the survey -- which includes responses from a small number of the region's nonprofits, just under 5 percent -- is a first step toward understanding the problems facing the nonprofit sector.

"This is important information for us to have," she said. "I think it really could inform the nonprofit field on the sector on Long Island if we had good solid data here. And this is a start."