In his inaugural address this week, President Barack Obama included a message that should induce hope in the hearts of nonprofit leaders. He stated, “What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility—a recognition on the part of every American that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world.” To paraphrase, Americans must dig deep to share the responsibility for the situation we find ourselves as a nation and we must, in a dutiful way, support the causes that are near and dear to our heart as a testimony to the world.
This message will likely produce conflicting feelings of hope and despair for nonprofit leaders. The hope is that Americans step up to the plate for their favorite causes and lend their support. The despair is bound up in the uncertainty of the economy and whether Americans will respond to the message of hope they hear from our leader as 2009 progresses.
In his commentary in today’s issue of The Wall Street Journal, Arthur Brooks, president of the American Enterprise Institute, points to the Philanthropic Giving Index (PGI) perhaps as an indicator of where we may be heading in 2009 in the bigger scheme. This index published by the Indiana University’s Center on Philanthropy shows that the PGI over the past six months dropped from 83 to 65 on a scale of 0-100. PGI is determined by nonprofit leaders and is similar to the Consumer Confidence Index. As a tool, the PGI is useful but does not indicate where the pain may be or by how much donors may lower their giving.
Ministries and religious nonprofits should take heart, however, according to further research by Mr. Brooks. The logic goes like this: conservatives give more than liberals because conservatives are more religious. Extracting this from its political implications, folks who attend church services and who consider themselves religious tend to out-give those who are not by more than $1,100 per year. Mr. Brooks further shows that these same people decrease their giving less during economic downturns.
I am not sure of the age demographic for all of this information. I suspect that the younger generation that responded favorably to the fund-raising appeal of the Obama campaign heard the words “hope” and “change.” They thought electing a new president would result in the change. Now the task is to get this next generation to step up and become responsible supporters of the causes they hold dear. For next generation believers, it is time to consider what stewardship really means and which ministries merit their support. This is the mandate for us all.
