Bay Area Nonprofit Groups Brace for 2010 Shakeup

Nonprofit groups in one of the country’s major centers of charitable activity foresee a major restructuring in the next year, with many organizations likely to close or merge, the San Francisco Chronicle reports.

Declining donations and rising demand for services are hitting especially hard in the San Francisco Bay Area, home to 25,000 nonprofit groups that account for 14 percent of the region’s gross national product, double the national average.

“Although nonprofits will be OK this year, the next two years will be difficult” as the impact of state budget cuts is felt, said Denise Gammal, a vice president at United Way of the Bay Area and co-author of a Stanford University study on the region’s charities.