The State of Giving in Door County

The recent national headlines paint a grim picture for charities in the United States. “Economic Recovery Slow for US Nonprofits” (AP News). “This Christmas, Charities are in Crisis” (Huffington Post). “Long Road to Recovery for Non-Profits” (ABC News).

These dire warnings come directly from the findings of the “Late Fall 2011 Nonprofit Fundraising Study” which is published annually by the Nonprofit Research Collaborative. The study’s conclusions were painful to hear. “Nonprofit organizations already report to being ‘cut to the bone’ in their budgets, and in general, fundraising results have not improved over the past year.”

“While the economy is slowly recovering, the nonprofit sector has not seen improvement in fundraising results yet. What improvements are occurring appear to benefit the larger nonprofit organizations.”

Researchers are estimating that it may take another three to four years before giving levels rebound for charities of all sizes. Until then, it’s the small non-profits that are struggling the most.

“The smallest organizations, in particular, are feeling many signs of fiscal stress. In response, a larger share of these charities are reducing staff and struggling to find ways to raise revenue.”

The Door County Community Foundation conducted an informal poll of local charities to see if the national trends were holding true for our community as well. Although our methodology was so thoroughly unscientific as to make researchers everywhere shudder, we have gathered ample anecdotal evidence to cause us to believe that Door County is doing better than the nation as a whole.

In our community, the largest and most established charities are not just doing fine, they appear to be doing very well. Mike Herlache, Executive Director of the Door County Medical Center Foundation, said that giving at the Medical Center “has increased 30 percent in 2011 as compared to 2010.” Executive Director Jim Meyer said that at the Sunshine House, “Giving is up 20 percent this year.”

The Door County YMCA’s Vice President of Mission Development Cindy Weber said, “We are up in giving and have been every year for the last five years.” And at the Peninsula Music Festival, Executive Director Sharon Grutzmacher said that “with our new fiscal year underway, giving is shattering records.” These comments were reflective of what we heard from the leaders of many of Door County’s largest and most prominent charities.

At our smaller or less well-established organizations, generally speaking we’re not seeing the dramatic drops of revenue that have happened in other parts of the country. Instead, the local story we heard is that our small charities are struggling, but they are getting by.

Ann Bennett, Executive Director of Neighbor-to-Neighbor said, “Our numbers of donations have increased, but the amounts of the donations have been down somewhat.” As a result, “Our organization is holding its own.” Executive Director Cari Lewis of the Door Community Auditorium reports that “sponsorships and memberships are 1 percent over last year’s [results].” And at HELP of Door County, Executive Director Ursula Bunnell said, “Giving is down, but not substantially.”

Of course, there are exceptions to the rule. We can all point to charities that are having a difficult year – but we can find some like that in every year. Generally speaking, non-profit organizations in Door County seem to be doing better than expected given the national trends.

We asked our non-profit colleagues to help us figure out why this is. Why are charities in Door County doing slightly better than you would expect given the state of giving in the nation as a whole?

Some non-profit executives attribute it to the increased number of fundraising activities they’re conducting at their own organizations. While I’m sure that makes a difference, I’m equally sure that charities all across the nation are implementing new fundraising strategies in this tough economy. So that can’t fully account for why Door County is doing better than average.

Other charitable leaders point to the quality and comprehensiveness of their planning. While I am an enormous advocate for building comprehensive development plans, I haven’t seen anything in Door County that is radically different or more advanced than what you’d fine in our counterparts in other parts of the country. There has to be something else about this place which keeps giving relatively strong even during a tough economy.

In addition to running the Door County Medical Center Foundation, Mike Herlache is a lifelong resident. He might have the best explanation of all.

“I believe the main reason for the increase, even in these troubled economic times, is because of the ‘island mentality’ we have here in the Door Peninsula. We are pretty isolated here and we have come to rely on each other, our community,” says Herlache.

“We challenge ourselves here, more than in other communities, to help our neighbors that are less fortunate. As far as I am concerned, we are all very fortunate to live in the most generous and giving community in the state!”

I couldn’t agree more.