Survey: 44% Of Nonprofits Anticipate Further Staff Cuts Due To Coronavirus

A new survey of more than 750 nonprofits around the U.S. finds that 18% of nonprofit staff has been furloughed or laid off already — and 44% of respondents anticipate even more layoffs to come.

The survey, conducted between March and April by La Piana Consulting, revealed a number of painful conclusions about the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on the country’s nonprofit sector.

Four out of five respondents said they’d moved some or all of their programs to an online or otherwise digital method; on average, the survey found that 83% of nonprofit operations were now working from home.

And April was worse than March: the percent of nonprofits reporting a drop in monthly revenue rose from 70% to 90%.

More than half (55%) of nonprofits said they anticipated further cutbacks in services. Nearly a quarter of responding nonprofits reported considering partnerships, such as a merger, in response to the pandemic.

The survey included a sample of anonymized feedback from nonprofits expressing exhaustion, confusion and fear.

“It's been exhausting, because it's like an increase of 40% of the work, with no increase in pay, and none of the rest of our work went away!” one respondent said. “Jumping through hoops that change daily, hoping for time off when everyone else reopens, but that's unlikely! :)”

“I'm very concerned that the philanthropic community is pivoting towards ONLY funding COVID-19 related organizations,” wrote another respondent, “and I am concerned about social service groups that aren't directly working on this and therefore not eligible for the grants and resources.”

But there were shades of optimism as well:

“It's been difficult in many ways,” one nonprofit replied, “but also very positive in adapting our culture to be more fluid, nimble and paperless.”

“(The pandemic) has created an opportunity for our entire network to mobilize around a single external threat,” another respondent wrote. “We are operating on all cylinders organizing at the local level, the state level, national and international level with an intensity I've never seen before. It has helped us get aligned and clear about our purpose— saving lives and combating the racial inequities that make the virus (like all other social determinants of health) hit black and brown communities in a more devastating way.”

While nonprofits from coast to coast were represented in the survey, 37.8% of the responses came from ‘Region IX:’ Nevada, Arizona and California; La Piana Consulting is based in Oakland. Additionally, 2.2% of responses came from outside of the U.S.