February 26, 2009 | Read Time: 2 minutes
Nonprofit organizations in the United States have put on hold an estimated $166-billion worth of construction and renovation projects because of the economic downturn, according to a new report. That figure doesn’t include projects by colleges or hospitals, which are probably worth many millions more.
The report found that 40 percent of 1,837 groups surveyed said financial woes had forced them to stall projects that were “shovel ready,” meaning they had been designed and were ready for bids, with construction able to start within 90 days after contracts were awarded.
State Governments
The survey was conducted by the Johns Hopkins University Center for Civil Society Studies, as part of the Nonprofit Listening Post Project, a research effort that examines issues facing nonprofit groups.
“What we hope to come out of it is a willingness for state and local governments to include some of these priority nonprofit infrastructure projects in their economic-recovery investments,” says the center’s director, Lester M. Salamon.
The organizations surveyed were drawn largely from four broad categories: children and family services, elderly services and housing, community development, and the arts. Collectively they reported a total of more than $10-billion in projects placed on hold because of money challenges presented by current economic conditions.
Based on the survey results, and after excluding nonprofit hospitals and colleges from consideration, researchers estimated that $166-billion in charity construction projects are stalled nationwide. Two-thirds of the more than 1,000 projects charities put on hold were renovation efforts, while the rest were new construction projects.
Museums reported the highest rate of stalled projects, with 64 percent reporting that they had construction work waiting to proceed.
More than 12 percent of the charities surveyed had multiple projects on hold, and 44 percent said they had other projects that they were unable to make “shovel ready” because of the economy.
More information, as well as a state-by-state list of charity construction projects on hold, can be found free on the Nonprofit Listening Post Project Web site.
