Month: April 2016

Ten Things Non-Profits Should Know When Choosing Office Space

/ Center for Non-Profits

  By Cheri Hennessy Durst

Photos courtesy CollaborationCore
(Photos courtesy CollaborationCore)

Is your organization growing out of a home office or considering moving your established set-up to a new facility? Before getting into the details of searching, your board should discuss the big picture issues such as:

  • Will a new location help our mission and the community we serve?
  • Should we rent, or is it time to own?
  • Should we do the searching or hire a realtor specializing in office rentals?

Build with a Purpose, a New Jersey-based non-profit, can help you start the conversation with their Helpful Guides to Facility Development.

Even though change can be exciting, for some moving your office from one location to another can be a daunting task. Many of the things you, your staff and volunteers are accustomed to may now turn into expenses for your organization. To make the process a bit easier, below are ten key questions to ask when searching for your new location.

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Chronic Under-Funding of Non-Profits: An Unacceptable Risk

/ Linda Czipo

By Linda M. Czipo

New Jesey Non-Profits 2016: Trends and Outlook - Cover The Center for Non-Profits has just released its New Jersey Non-Profits 2016: Trends and Outlook report, highlighting the findings from our 2016 annual non-profit survey.

The full report lays out in detail the ups and downs experienced by non-profits during the previous year, and their outlook for 2016. Here are the major highlights, based on the 311 New Jersey non-profit respondents from late January/early February 2016:

  • Nearly three-quarters of responding organizations reported that demand for services had increased during the past year.
  • Nearly four-fifths expected demand to continue rising in 2016.
  • Only two-fifths reported receiving more total funding in 2015 than in 2014, but nearly two-thirds reported that their expenses had increased during the same period.
  • Over one-third (35%) reported that expenses exceeded support and revenue during their most recently completed fiscal year; the proportion was even higher (44%) among larger organizations, those with annual budgets of $1.5 million or more.
  • Seventy percent expected their total expenses to increase in 2016, but fewer than half (47%) expected total 2016 funding to increase.

If you’ve seen our previous surveys or if you work regularly with non-profits, these findings may sound like variations of a familiar theme. You may even think that they’re better than during the worst of the recession – and that’s true. But if you care about the well-being of the non-profit community and non-profits’ ability to provide vital programs and services, these numbers should generate deep concern.

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