September 16, 2004 | Read Time: 1 minute
Thin the Soup or Shorten the Line: Washington Area Nonprofits Adapt to Uncertain Times, by Patricia Atkins, Mallory Barg, Joseph Cordes, and Martha Ross, analyzes how human-service organizations in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area are coping as costs and demand for services outpace revenue growth. The report is based on surveys completed by 348 human-services groups, as well as interviews, tax information, and data from local government budgets. It argues that while nonprofit groups are actively seeking new sources of money and are spending from their reserves, they are also being forced to cut the quality and quantity of services. The authors outline ways in which government, corporate, and other donors can work with nonprofit organizations to improve their effectiveness, such as by providing management help and creating more-transparent grant-making processes.
