Report Helps Nonprofit Systems to Create Sustainable Growth and Financial Stability

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Image via HealthSpark Foundation.

The Nonprofit Repositioning Fund, in partnership with its members from HealthSpark Foundation, The Scattergood Foundation and the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey, released a new report at the Philanthropy Network of Greater Philadelphia’s SPARX Conference that details the financial health and resiliency of the region’s nonprofits.

The report compares data between 2014 to 2018, locating the risks and challenges that nonprofits were facing before 2020, and focused on the risks of COVID-19, the economic recession, and other challenges in 2020.

“The Financial Health of Greater Philadelphia Nonprofits” is based upon an analysis of 2018 IRS 990 data conducted by BCT Consulting and the data provided by the Nonprofit Repositioning Fund Director Nadya Shmavonian.

This new tool can support efforts of individual organizational leaders and boards to benchmark their financial performance within a comparable pool as well as providing trend data from a report supported by the Philadelphia Foundation – The Financial Health of Philadelphia-Area Nonprofits.

The report provides government, philanthropy, nonprofit executives and their board members with essential data to prepare financial plans to help stabilize the nonprofit community that provides essential services as well as helping the economy’s recovery.

When looking at the sector as a whole, the report shows some encouraging trends from 2014 to 2018, including:

  • a 21 percent increase in total revenues (including a 31 percent increase in contributions)
  • a 31 percent increase in net philanthropy
  • a 33 percent growth in securities and investments
  • a 35 percent increase in unrestricted net assets
  • an almost doubling of months of operating reserves from 1.6 to 3 months

Russell Johnson, President and CEO of the HealthSpark Foundation and Chair of the Nonprofit Repositioning Fund, says that the report should be a wake-up call to all nonprofits that business as usual was challenging for organizations before 2020, and the way forward will be to make significant changes to the way we operate as a sector.

The report also highlights how essential nonprofits are to post-COVID economic recovery. It makes suggestions for nonprofits based on a SeaChange report, Tough Times Call for Tough Action, released in late March 2020, just as the magnitude of the pandemic’s challenges for nonprofits was heightening.

Read the full report here.

The Financial Health of Greater Philadelphia Nonprofits. by Ken Knickerbocker on Scribd

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