Organizations from across the Berkshire area will be gathering in Pittsfield to discuss economic forecasts and how the nonprofit sector can prepare for the upcoming fiscal years. The regional meeting, entitled “Tough Times Call for Good Plans,” is being held by the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, the state association of nonprofit organizations.

In addition to providing local leaders with an opportunity to discuss the future, the meeting will also provide the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network with valuable information about what regional priorities need to be taken back to Beacon Hill.

The following was written by Elizabeth Gawron, president of the Cape Cod Foundation; Richard Brothers, president of the Cape and Islands United Way; and David Magnani, executive director of the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network.
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One important way you might act on this last recommendation is to attend the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network’s regional meeting of Cape and Islands’ nonprofits. The session will help participants understand some of the challenges that Cape and Islands’ nonprofits, and those around the state, are facing and what can be done to help them through this recession. The meeting will be at 8:30 a.m. tomorow at Cape Cod Community College in West Barnstable.

Non-profits not only provide countless direct services, but also serve as economic drivers in our communities.

Statewide, the impact of non-profits on our economy is staggering. Non-profits employ nearly 14 percent of the state’s workforce, or 450,000 jobs, which is more than any other single sector and more than local, state and federal government combined. Non-profits provide good, local jobs that stay in our communities. These jobs cannot be outsourced, and the salaries of the workers stay in our communities. Coming out of the last recession, the nonprofit sector was the first to add jobs.

The bad news came first.

A day after Gov. Deval Patrick said the state will have to shave another $600 million from the budget because of depressed revenues, state Sen. Karen Spilka sat in front of about two dozen nonprofit leaders and did not sugarcoat the news.

“Six hundred million is going to hurt. I can’t couch that,” said the Ashland Democrat, speaking before the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network yesterday morning.

Before the brainstorming session began, David Magnani, the network’s executive director, said the economic downturn has particularly hurt the nonprofit sector, from museums to social service agencies.

Two women who have been instrumental in the development of nonprofits aimed at reducing poverty and increasing social justice over several decades, have been named Lifetime Achievement Award winners by the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network.

Kip Tiernan and Fran Froehlich will be honored at the annual Massachusetts Nonprofit Network (MNN) conference on Nov. 13, which will focus on “Grantmakers and Grantees for the Common Good.”

Although Gov. Deval Patrick last week signed a law that delayed until Jan. 1 implementation of the lobbying provisions of the state’s new ethics law , confusion surrounding the new regulations still exists, according to a leading nonprofit spokesman.

According to David P, Magnani, executive director of Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, the state’s nonprofit trade association, “The nonprofit sector needs clarification on what the measure would mean to us. We hope the secretary of state will issue an advisory opinion on how the language of the bill will actually be interpreted.”

The recession has only grazed the salaries of top management at some of Boston’s largest nonprofits while hitting other executives square in the wallet.

Some nonprofit executives have taken no pay cut at all, while others have taken as much as a 10 percent salary reduction, an informal Boston Business Journal survey has found.

But there has been one common denominator: The bad economy has forced every nonprofit, from social service agencies to museums, to scour line item by line item to grasp for savings. The recession also has added more urgency to calls for consolidation and efficiency from the donor community.

Buoyed by data released last spring showing that small nonprofits lag when it comes to employee retirement accounts and health care plans, an organization representing the interests of the sector is aggressively moving forward to ease some of those obstacles.

The study sponsored by the Boston Foundation, Braver PC and the Massachusetts Nonprofit Network, the organization representing nonprofits, found that slightly more than half of the state’s nonprofits with annual budgets of less than $250,000 offer employee health insurance benefits. And 44 percent of statewide organizations offer retirement plans.