Surviving Tough Times

Jamie Gaskin led the effort to revive Flint’s Boys & Girls Club. (Photograph by Santa Fabio, for The Chronicle)

MAKING A COMEBACK FOR KIDS A moribund Boys & Girls Club in Flint, Mich., found new life when leaders and board members adopted an approach to service and fund raising that reflected the city’s blue-collar work ethic.

PROGRAMS GEARED TO CLIENTS’ PROBLEMS, which often then prove to be hot-button issues like the mortgage crisis, have helped the Atlanta Legal Aid Society attract donors and diversify its fund raising.

FORWARD THINKING — including a partnership with the public library and a “risky” board restructuring — keeps the Children’s Theatre of Charlotte financially robust.

PROJECT ACCESS NOW, an Oregon charity that works to distribute charity care more evenly among doctors and medical facilities, got its start in a shaky economy by soliciting gifts of products and services before it asked for money.

TWO SOCIAL-SERVICE CHARITIES in Maine weathered a downturn made worse by severe state-budget cuts by merging to achieve great efficiency and economies of scale.

MULTIMEDIA: See a slideshow of the leaders of charities that have figured out how to thrive in tough times.