On Topic: Why they're called partnerships

Times aren't what they used to be. I'm not giving away any national security secrets in saying many not-for-profits in particular are having a tough time.

Fewer individuals - you and me - along with fewer corporations, foundations and the government are giving money to NFPs. And those who are contributing are forking over less.

The dilemma didn't start just yesterday, but it has accelerated in the past few years. Look at this:

•  Foundations - specifically family and independent foundations, which are the significant majority of foundations in the United States - reduced giving by just under 1 percent, to $32.5 billion, in 2010, according to the Foundation Center's most recent calculations (April 2011).
•  Corporation foundations' support stayed flat in 2010, at $4.7 billion.
•  Community foundations funding dropped 2.1 percent in that same year, to $4.1 billion.
•  Foundation giving overall plummeted some 8.4 percent in 2009, the Foundation Yearbook reported in its November 2010 edition.
•  2010 recorded the first consecutive drop in community foundation support since 1981, notes the April 2011 edition of Key Facts on Community Foundations.

I know those “billions” sound like a great deal of cash, but remember, we're talking about for the entire country.

In any case, you get the picture. No doubt what NFPs are experiencing mirrors what's been happening to the economy nationally.

NFPs get battered front and back. Less money is coming in the door - to provide services and pay for staff and facilities - at the same time as what those organizations provide is needed even more.

This is true whether we're talking about community services for the temporarily or more permanently disadvantaged or about support for the arts. (The latter is a topic for another day and another column.)

And NFP folk know it. The NonProfit Times released a survey in June that claimed some two-thirds of NFP executives said they intend to bolt their jobs within the next five years.

The 3,000 respondents to the survey, put together by CompassPoint Nonprofit Services and the Meyer Foundation, noted that 26 percent of their organizations had “downsized” during the previous year.

By “downsized” we can assume it means employees were fired and/or services were truncated.

Yes, it's a given most NFPs don't pay a lot - unless we're talking about the rainmakers for more sizable organizations.

They do it because they're committed to make a difference in their community - by helping families or individuals in need, by advancing the unifying benefits of art.

But you can't get very far on an empty tank.

So what to we do? Do we ask private citizens - the upper and middle class - as well as companies that might be struggling to meet payroll to dig deeper into their pockets?

There are other ways to help.

In the early 1920s, William Erastus Upjohn patented his invention, the easily digested pill. (He invented the pill, rather than The Pill.) The following year he founded the Upjohn Pharmaceutical Co. in Kalamazoo, Mich.

And very soon after Dr. Upjohn and his company began doing what they could to build up their community. They helped start a local symphony orchestra, an art museum and a community theater - all of which are still doing business today.

Upjohn figured that quality of life had to be high to attract top-notch scientists and managers to a small town most people had to look up on a map.

And that the other companies that would grow up around Upjohn Pharmaceutical - latter to become Pharmacia-Upjohn, then just Pharmacia, and today owned by Pfizer Inc. - also would need to be able to brag about a hometown that cares about its citizens.

It's that same notion about making where we live a better place that prompts companies large and small here in the Corridor to get creative about ways to lend a hand.

So you have law firms, tech companies and marketing agencies that offer advice and do pro bono work. You see CFOs from corporations provide guidance on how to assemble a viable business plan.

Some companies are more inventive. They allow their employees to take a set amount of time off during the workweek to volunteer for recognized local causes.

These NFP and for-profit partnerships improve the community. They make where we live and work a better place.

That's a place where people want to come to and where they want to stay.

Sound like anywhere you know?