Nonprofits Feel Economic Pinch, Asbury Park Press, April 12, 2011

By BONNIE DELANEY
STAFF WRITER

   On a recent Tuesday morning, they came. One woman, anticipating the effects of chemotherapy, needed a wig.

   Three other newcomers were there for the weekly support group meeting at the nonprofit Cancer Concern Center in Point
Pleasant Beach. They joined 11 others and Lakewood resident Pat Spillane, a breast cancer survivor and retired clinical
social worker who leads the 90-minute sessions each Tuesday at noon.

   ""I don't know where I'd be without this group. If you think you don't need (a support group), you do. .‚.‚. I do,''
said Joan Panuska, a breast cancer survivor from Brick who has been attending the meetings for three years.

   Around New Jersey, though, many nonprofits, like the Cancer Concern Center, are taking a beating from the bad economy
and a drop in donations.

   The Cancer Concern Center was founded by breast cancer survivors and friends Jill McDonough of Lavallette and Lori
Jeffries of Point Pleasant. For 17 years, it has offered … free of charge … weekly support groups, yoga classes, massage
therapy, meditation, makeovers and wigs.

   Yet the services the group wants to continue to provide are shrinking … hit hard by the downturn in the economy and
dwindling donations, said Point Pleasant Beach resident Lisa Montalbano, McDonough's daughter, who has worked as the office
manager for eight years.

   Previously a paid employee, Montalbano has continued to do the job without pay for the past two years. ""There just
isn't enough money,'' she said.

   ""We have just enough to pay the rent and utilities each month. We're operating on $40,000 to $50,000 a year,''
Montalbano said.

   The Cancer Concern Center certainly is not alone. Many other nonprofits are in the same predicament, said Linda Czipo,
the executive director of the North Brunswick-based Center for Non-Profits.

   According to the center's recent report and annual survey released in March, ""steadily climbing demand for services and
tight funding streams continued to challenge New Jersey nonprofits in 2010, and nonprofits were adopting a cautious outlook
for 2011.''

   ""The survey provides further evidence of the toll the recession has been taking on the state's charitable community,''
Czipo said, and noted that some nonprofit organizations, like the New Jersey Museum of Agriculture, have been forced to
close or dissolve recently.

   The board of the museum, in New Brunswick, recently voted to close because of a lack of funds, she said.

   The private, nonprofit museum was incorporated in 1984, opening a building on College Farm Road near the Cook Campus of
Rutgers University. Its mission: to teach schoolchildren about the state's farming history dating to the Lenni Lenape
Indians.

   Although no one answered the telephone at the museum, the website was still up, noting that the museum has been closed
to visitors since Feb. 14.


Double Impact

   At Project Paul in Keansburg, Executive Director Sal Cortale said he sees a twofold impact: one in the increased number
of people needing help and a second in decreased donations.
 
   ""In 2010, we distributed bags of food to 1,650 qualified individuals each week,'' he said. ""We're feeding between
80,000 and 85,000 people a year, and it's up from the previous year.'

   ""I think that people who were on the borderline prior to the recession are now in need of help,'' Cortale said.

   Cortale, who said he is one of only two paid employees at Project Paul, added that volunteers are necessary to keep the
organization running.

   At Morris Habitat for Humanity in Morris County … one of New Jersey's most affluent counties … Jim Choma, development
director, said the agency was ""holding its own.''

   ""Our annual appeal was up. Gala sponsorships were up, but foundation funding was down slightly,'' Choma said, and noted
that the nonprofit ecumenical Christian housing ministry is dedicated to building decent, affordable housing with
low-income families.

   ""We're all trying to do the best we can for those in need,'' Choma said.

   The need is ample, as regulars at the Cancer Concern Center can attest.

   ""This is a safe place to be, and anything that is said here stays here,'' said Panuska, the support group member from
Brick.

   She spoke as other cancer survivors introduced themselves, one by one, and briefly talked about what stage they are at
in their battle with or recovery from an array of cancers, including breast, colon, lung and throat.

   Montalbano, the office manager, offered another example of how dire things have become. She said that Heather Keefe of
Point Pleasant, a member of the group's board of directors and also a grant writer, does most of the grant writing for
free.

   Keefe said the center is hopeful its annual dinner dance fundraiser, scheduled from 7 to 11 p.m. May 21 at The Barclay
in Belmar, will be a success.




Bonnie Delaney: 732-557-5738; bdelaney@njpressmedia.com