Local nonprofits struggle to stay afloat in recession

LOGAN — When Wendi Hassan became executive director of the Alliance for the Varied Arts in Logan last December, it didn't take long to realize her ship was sinking.

In February, she realized the only way to save the 40-year-old nonprofit group was to fire herself and her only employee. The Alliance for the Varied Arts, the oldest continually run volunteer arts organization in Utah, would dissolve. But through a merger with another nonprofit, its purpose would live on and Hassan, despite losing her job, would feel like she's won a victory.

While a majority of Utah's nonprofit organizations have drastically slashed their budgets and their staff during the last year, many leaders, like Hassan, are finding creative ways to cope with a straining economy while still fulfilling their mission. Hassan will share her bittersweet success story Tuesday at the Wells Fargo Economic Summit for Nonprofits, where 100 organizations will gather to share ideas on how to survive.

Since January 2009, 66 percent of Utah's nonprofits cut their budgets as demand for charitable services rose for more than half of the groups. But these are only the latest numbers in a long decline that started with the recession in 2007.

"Things really fell apart hard and fast, and nonprofits had to be very entrepreneurial and scramble, but the difference with nonprofits is, the food bank doesn't get to say, 'I'm really sorry, but our donations are down, so we can't meet your needs,' " said Fraser Nelson, executive director of the Community Foundation of Utah. "The homeless shelters don't get to say, 'You can't come here because we didn't get a grant.' "

Utah has about 8,000 nonprofits, 5,000 of which are charities. The organizations all have different missions, which could include feeding the hungry, or sheltering the homeless or providing a cultural outlet for the community. They all rely on voluntarism, donations and grants to get by, but as money has become more scarce — in July last year, corporate giving was down by 55 percent in Utah from 2008 — nonprofits have had to become more aware of where they overlap with other groups.

And in the case of Hassan, sometimes the groups find it's better to combine with a similar organization and have the programs survive than stay on their own and fail.