1.    Home foreclosures are still going gangbusters. Until this trend eases there will be no incentive to buy a house that is not in distress and with 10 houses on the market for every buyer prices will continue to drop. States where the housing market is an important part of the economy, and the tax base, will continue to suffer.

2.    Employment is stagnant and what new jobs we are seeing are largely temporary, with no benefits or security. The continuation of the perfect poverty storm – more people needing more services just when there are fewer tax and donor dollars to pay for them – is assured for the next year.

3.    The federal government just passed the largest package of tax breaks in recent history yet is “firmly committed” to deficit reduction. How does that work? By cutting discretionary spending. Since they can’t cut Social Security and Medicare, and they won’t cut the military, that leaves relatively small pockets of social program spending – pockets which nonprofits depend upon – to take deep cuts.

4.    The states are in real trouble. Many are nearing insolvency. Unlike the feds they can’t just print more money, and most have a constitutional requirement for a balanced budget. The quickest way to electoral defeat is to mention the possibility of raising taxes, and states too have entitlements that must be met. That means those few dollars spent on discretionary social programs are going to be squeezed even more tightly, and  even required programs like health care for the poor are going to be pared down to the bone. In California, where counties deliver the bulk of human services, we have already seen health and social services authorities both “lengthen the line and thin the soup.”  The pot will soon be empty.

5.    No one cares. In times of economic difficulty it is normal for people to look to their own needs first. And with jobs dicey, homes under water, and the general gloomy economic environment, “compassion fatigue” is in full swing.

Lest I leave you with no hope – let’s remember that this whole period of deep misery is temporary. The economy will improve, employers will begin adding jobs again, and we’ll return to the normal moderate level of misery. We just need to keep being smart, doing what we can, and finding creative solutions – to get us through 2011.

As Valerie Lies, President and CEO of the Donors Forum, described in her powerful opening remarks to the 600 guests of last week’s event, Chicago is struggling with many of the same economic and political challenges as the rest of the country.

I described La Piana Consulting’s NonprofitNext research and the five key trends that are converging to reshape the social sector landscape.

Joining the discussion was Mae Hong, Director of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, Nicole Robinson, Director of Kraft Foods Global Community Involvement division, and Ricardo Estrada, Chicago’s First Deputy Commissioner of the Department of Family and Support Services.

The panel itself represented the future, with young and diverse leaders, whose affiliations spanned a blurring of sectors across government, philanthropic, and corporate social action.

Where will you take nonprofits next? Join the conversation today!

To learn more about Sustainability and how nonprofits are participating in this growing movement, we spoke with Holly Brunk, Membership and Services Coordinator at The Natural Step Network in Portland, Oregon. She remarked on how in many ways the Sustainability field illustrates emerging trends called out in Convergence, such as sector blurring and the use of networks. By its very nature, this work must engage all sectors in developing solutions to complex problems. Brunk described how the evolution of what began as a primarily ecology-based framework into a more comprehensive vision including economic and social components has helped broaden the dialogue and even bring together those who may have traditionally seen one another as adversaries. “Adding financial and social sustainability frameworks to what has traditionally been just environmental creates more spaces for bridging that gap and finding common values,” she added.

Such cross-sector bridging is the topic of an upcoming webinar presented by the Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership, a funder collaborative seeking policy change to realize the vision of “healthy people living in healthy places.” The May 25 webinar, Strategies for Multi-Field and Cross-Sector Collaborations, will focus on partnering across fields (from health to urban planning, transportation, food and sustainable agriculture, and community/economic development) to build thriving communities. Is your organization prepared to work with others toward a more Sustainable future?

As I young girl, my family owned a restaurant and at age 10, I was given the job to “observe” what was happening throughout the day and to report my observations to my father at the end of the day.  This wasn’t a spying mission, but an exercise in heightening my awareness to operations and interpersonal skills.  What was working well? What wasn’t?  Paying attention to the surroundings is a skill that heightens the ability of leaders to make adjustments to maximize the efficiency and productivity of the organization.

Although systems are important, it really comes down to the people.  People – how you relate to them, what you expect of them, what level of engagement you give them in the big picture.  I am a strong believer that leaders are bred, NOT born.  We all have areas of leadership within us; it is a matter of uncovering these areas and leveraging them for the greater good.

In our workshops, we present the work of many different thought leaders – Kouzes and Posner, Collins, Kotter, Senge, Blanchard, Goleman, etc. – and if I were to distill it to the most critical elements, I would say: it is about relationships, interpersonal skills and listening skills.  Leadership is something your carry in all aspects of your life, it isn’t only a jacket you put on when you go to work.  It is part of your being.  If you think about the people that have inspired you in your life, what attributes did they possess?  Did they care about you as a person? Did they believe in your ability to succeed? Were they good listeners?

There are several people in my life that demonstrated these attributes and shaped my leadership skills: my third grade teacher who allowed me to stay after school every day and cared about my future; my baseball coach who believed that I should play baseball even if I was a girl; and most recently a professional mentor who really solidified the tenets of leadership in my practice.  These tenets I carry with me in my wallet as a daily reminder:  They are:

1. Be nice to people because you never know when you might have to work for them
2. Hire the smartest people you can find
3. Give them far more responsibility than they can handle
4. Don’t get mad when they make mistakes
5. Always acknowledge good work
6. Don’t meddle

Leadership is something within all of us, it takes commitment and dedication to strengthen.  With this commitment.. the change we can be in the world is infinite.

Mergers and other forms of strategic restructuring have gotten tremendous attention recently as both a sustainability and opportunity strategy in the midst of an economic downturn and the resulting decline in charitable giving.

One barrier we frequently observe in assisting organizations that are considering strategic restructuring options is the fear of losing your identity. This is an especially significant consideration in the arts sector, where artistic and organizational identity often go hand in hand. But loss of identity is not an inevitable outcome of a merger. An example of this is the pending merger of the Oakland East Bay Symphony, the Oakland Youth Orchestra, and the Oakland Symphony Chorus, who have recently decided to combine into a single corporation while maintaining their existing individual identities. This will allow them to consolidate administrative functions – thereby saving money and increasing efficiencies – while maintaining the specific programming and artistic visions that are so important to them. The merger also provides an opportunity to introduce each of their existing audiences to the programming of the other two.

When a merger does transform your identity, it can do so in ways that enable you to meet your mission in in new and more powerful ways.

Consider the example of two organizations currently in merger negotiations. Serving the same geographic area, one has worked on domestic violence issues while the other has worked on child abuse and neglect. These organizations recognized that they serve many of the same families – given the frequent co-occurrence of these issues – and that combining the organizations could enable them to serve these families in a more coordinated and streamlined way. In addition, they recognized a unique opportunity to lead their entire community in better understanding and addressing the interconnectedness of violence that occurs within the family setting, thereby increasing their capacity to address the root causes.

While strategic restructuring is not always the answer, nonprofits facing unprecedented challenges to their business models would do well to consider it not just as a survival strategy, but as a vehicle for meeting – and even transforming – their mission in ways that open up new pathways to achieving social impact.