Here is something to ponder. Spending time in Chicago for Thanksgiving, I witnessed more cars than available parking spaces at the mall, people elbow to elbow inside the mall and in every store. Most of them were spending when the media said it would be one of the worst Black Friday's in history. What REALLY happened? Black Friday spending was up 7% over last year! The doom and gloom predictions were totally off the mark. They are off the mark with donations too.
In recent conversations with nonprofit leaders, I have found that many of them have been surprised at their support from sponsors and donors. They were expecting the worst and discovered just the opposite. They discover that their supporters are still there with generous gifts of cash, trips and wonderful items that can be presented for auction. In Cleveland, National City Bank was generous enough to support the local community with $20 million dollars directed annually to nonprofits. When PNC Bank bought NCB, the initial thought was less dollars for nonprofits. Actually, just the opposite happened, PNC announced it would contribute $5-million more in availability to the Cleveland community than National City Bank was contributing. What an opportunity for nonprofits in Cleveland!
Crisis by definition means "leading to a decisive change" and the financial crisis is being addressed. There is plenty of spending still taking place and it is being witnessed in the malls and online. If spending is up 7% from last year, shouldn't organizations benefit too?
