With the asset values of major donors down 20 percent and their 2009 grants budgets trending 45 percent lower than 2008, the Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers is well-positioned to help donor-members manage the downstream strain on the area’s grant-dependent agencies and charities.
“We are a membership organization of foundations, corporate giving programs and other charities with significant grantmaking programs, formed in 1983 to be a forum for colleagues to address common problems and interests” said Betsy Nelson, executive director of the 140-member, $500,000 a year ABAG.
“We’re a gathering place for these funders, where they can learn about the needs and best practices of grantmaking so they are well-positioned to achieve the impact they want to have,” she added.
Nelson said that the nine-employee nonprofit hosts weekly presentations on philanthropic subjects of member interest, acts as a base and fiscal agent for collaborative projects and smaller grantmaking groups and promotes individual networking among its members.
“It serves an important need as a philanthropic center,” Gigi Casey Wirtz, spokeswoman for the Baltimore Community Foundation, said of ABAG, “both by providing regular learning opportunities and by offering a forum for funders to work together on common interests.”
Nelson said that this convening and facilitation role is especially important in today’s worsening economic climate where, according to the ninth annual holiday spending survey, released Monday by the Consumer Federation of America and the Credit Union National Association, consumers nationwide are 20 percent more likely than before to reduce holiday spending.
Consumer spending is the backbone of the national economy, driving employment, stock market prices, corporate assets and, ultimately, charitable giving. Foundations and corporate giving programs receive most of their donations over Thanksgiving through Christmas holidays.
“We know the campaign will definitely be down from last year,” said Larry Walton, president of the United Way of Central Maryland, an ABAG member.
Walton said ABAG, through its convening and networking services, will help the $40 million-a-year grantmaking giant best manage what may be a $4 million, 2008 shortfall for beneficiary agencies — over state cutbacks and what might be a 40 percent decline in local fundraising.
Association of Baltimore Area Grantmakers
2 E. Read St., 2nd floor
Baltimore, MD 21202
410-727-1205; www.abagmd.org
