Happy (belated) New Year! I hope all of you were able to take some time off over the Holidays and spend time with your families. As we start a new year and look back at 2008, you can’t help but think how quick the year went and how fast things around us changed. Think about these tidbits:
- In a matter of six months we went form record high gas prices to current levels, which haven’t been seen in four years.
- In speaking with a nonprofit here in the Twin Cities who monitors housing prices in North Minneapolis, they mentioned that a house recently sold for less that $4,000. Now for the wow factor - the same house was last sold in 2004 for $175,000! Can you believe that?
- Unemployment is rising, the number of people in need are growing, cuts at the state of Minnesota are eminent……and so on and so forth.
In hearing about and reading about so many negatives that are going on in the country and world around us, I have decided to regulate the amount of negative publicity that I take in. After all, we still live in the greatest country in the world. We all have so much that we can be thankful for and we all need to take time to realize what many things we have and that this economy really can’t touch. Many of us have wonderful families, good jobs, freedom of speech and freedom of religion the list goes on and on. I would hope all of you keep these in mind as you hear and read news stories in 2009.
The year 2009 will undoubtedly have its challenges in the nonprofit sector, with the cuts that appear eminent at the state level coupled with the losses that many foundations and individuals experienced in their investment portfolio, it is difficult to imagine that there will not be significant reduction in dollars available for some nonprofit organizations. I hope that I’m wrong, but still thoughts and plans need to be developed if these thoughts come to fruition. Lastly, organizations need to be flexible and adapt to the changes as quickly as possible, while funding is difficult, the ability to adapt and make changes where needed and appropriate may be what enables the organization to continue to carry out its mission. I’ll close by quoting the famous quote “Life is 10% what happens to us, and 90% how we react to it.” I hope you all have a fantastic 2009!
Chad R. Faul, Assistant Vice President Nonprofit Banking, Bremer Bank
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