Although the Bank of Canada declared the recession officially over last summer, its impact on Alberta’s non-profit and charity groups is still being felt — hard.
A provincewide survey of 600 organizations by the Calgary Chamber of Voluntary Organizations suggests a strong majority, 84 per cent, is still struggling in the post-recession world.
“We were surprised at how extensive it was,” says Katherine van Kooy, president and CEO of the chamber.
In order to cope, several organizations are forming partnerships, limiting demand by not advertising services they can no longer deliver, increasingly drawing upon reserves and running deficits, she says.
“What we’re starting to see now are organizations saying ‘We can’t stretch further,’” says van Kooy. “You can’t do that for very long before you go under.”
More concerning, says van Kooy, is that the survey suggests larger, well-established organizations with budgets in the $10-million range are being hit as hard as smaller ones.
“We’ll find that some of those things we’ve come to expect as being available in our community simply won’t be there to the same degree because organizations won’t be able to provide those services.”
Email: thowell@ffwd.greatwest.ca
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