Press Release Details

Michelle McGurk, CFSV
(408) 278-2208

SAN JOSE -- After nearly five years of economic challenge and worldwide turmoil, Santa Clara County’s nonprofits are serving more clients than ever before, continuing to make do with less. As they do, many nonprofits are unable to invest in their organizations’ long-term health, and infrastructure needs and development of the next generation of leadership are under funded.

These are some of the findings from the 2005 Santa Clara County Nonprofit Benchmark Study, commissioned by Community Foundation Silicon Valley and CompassPoint Nonprofit Services, which will be released at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, July 7 at Applied Materials in Santa Clara.

"As we look at what the last five years have meant to the local nonprofit sector, one word emerges – resilience," said Peter Hero, president of Community Foundation Silicon Valley. "Nonprofits have weathered the burst of the tech bubble and the drops in government, corporate and foundation funding that followed, as well as political turmoil in California and the nation and world events that impacted charitable giving."

"Nonprofits not only are our community’s providers of human services and arts and culture, they provide the leadership our community requires for change to happen,"said Jan Masaoka, president, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services. "The future of the nonprofit sector depends on all of us – from individual community members to government leaders, from foundations to corporations, to the nonprofit sector itself – to take action to make the nonprofit sector stronger and better able to help our community in the long run."

The report identifies six challenges facing the sector and Calls to Action through which the issues can be addressed. Those challenges are:

1. Developing the next generation of nonprofit leaders.
2. Struggling to raise general operating support and funds to improve the staffing, management and infrastructure of the organization.
3. Maintaining and renewing a diverse pool of volunteers, including board members.
4. Meeting accountability and reporting requirements.
5. Advocating for the sector in a busy world.
6. Supporting technological capacity beyond the purchase of hardware.

The report also captures the economic impact of the nonprofit sector in the County. The nonprofit sector employees between 17,000 and 23,000 people – nearly as many as the restaurant sector (25,500) – and pays between $460 million and $794 million in wages each year. More than 380,000 volunteers provide 11.5 million hours of volunteer service each year, with a value of $206 million. In total, nonprofits contribute between $1.1 billion and $1.5 billion to the local economy and bring in $276 million to $480 million in funds from outside the County.

The report provides valuable data about the health of the sector, including recent growth, executive leadership, board governance, management practices, staff development, as well as fundraising, communications and technology practices. "This information is incredibly valuable to organizations like the Community Foundation that provide funds for the sector and CompassPoint, which provides training and consulting services to the sector," said Masaoka.

Financial health
Despite the economy, more than one-third of Santa Clara County nonprofit organizations saw their overall income increase by 5% or more and another one-third saw their overall income remain steady during the past two years, while less than one-in-three organizations experienced income decreases. However, those organizations that increased their income saw a concurrent and significant increase in the number of people using their services.

Additionally, nearly half of organizations that receive government funds saw those funds decrease over the past two years: 45% saw a decrease; 33% experienced no change; and 22% saw an increase. No fiel

About CompassPoint Nonprofit Services
With offices in San Francisco and Silicon Valley, CompassPoint Nonprofit Services is a nonprofit consulting and training organization. Through a broad range of services including consulting, research, information dissemination, workshops, and conferences, CompassPoint strives to provide the best management tools and concepts to help nonprofits better serve their communities. For more information, visit www.compasspoint.org or call 415.541.9000 in San Francisco or 415.541.9505 in San Jose.