Silicon Valley Nonprofits Planning for Significant Layoffs, Survey Finds

March 12, 2009, Philanthropy News Digest — Faced with significant declines in corporate and public sector contributions, a majority of health and human agencies in Silicon Valley are planning to lay off employees and scale back their services, a new report from the Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits finds.

In surveys of a hundred agencies conducted in December and February, SVCN found that only 7 percent of respondents considered themselves "financially strong and experiencing no impact from the recession." According to Snapshot of the Economic Issues Facing Nonprofits (7 pages, PDF), 64 percent of nonprofit agencies anticipate significant cuts in government funding in 2009, 47 percent reported that their funding from foundations was down, and 51 percent anticipated making layoffs "in the near future." Survey respondents also were concerned that funding cuts and staff downsizing in the sector would lead to reductions in the level of services provided to those living in poverty, even as demand for those services rises.

"Every single sector is being impacted by the economic recession, but most significantly is the poor and the working poor who are just making it day to day," SVCN executive director Patricia Gardner told the San Jose Mercury News. "The nonprofit heart is big, but we're now faced with the reality that we can't do all that we used to do."