Challenges to PhilanthropyMain MenuChallenges to PhilanthropyFSSO 119 Fall 2020Chapter 1: Challenges to Educational Nonprofit OrganizationsChallenges to Educational Nonprofit OrganizationsChapter 2: Challenges to Healthcare PhilanthropyRead about how the COVID-19 Pandemic is affecting some of the world's leading nonprofit healthcare organizationsChapter 3: Challenges to Arts Nonprofit OrganizationsPage 1 Challenges to Arts Nonprofit OrganizationsChapter 4: Challenges to Social Service OrganizationsChallenges to Social Service OrganizationsChapter 5: Challenges to Faith-Based Nonprofit OrganizationsChallenges to Faith-Based Nonprofit OrganizationsChapter 6: Challenges to Social Justice Nonprofit OrganizationsChallenges to Social Justice Nonprofit OrganizationsBarbara Burgess-Van Akendffa201f9e142dde249b32b2c708a4eebdb9f6daFSSO 119: Philanthropy in America
12020-11-09T00:13:26+00:00History of Social Service Nonprofits and Government Funding30plain2020-11-20T17:18:17+00:00A large increase in social service philanthropy occurred during the Great Depression on a community level. “These agencies provided services that ranged from institutional care for juvenile delinquents, orphans, or the aged, to boys clubs, summer camps, counseling, and emergency assistance (fuel, food, clothing).” (Grønbjerg) These essential agencies and nonprofits grew in numbers but remained small in size and underfunded for some time.
In the 1960s, federal aid became substantial and about 4.4% of the public social welfare budget started to go into social service organizations. There are disputes of how much of social service philanthropy is government-funded, an accepted estimation, made in 1999, is shown by the following diagram:
Around this boom of funding and social services agencies, Cleveland's own Bellefaire JCB grew in size and reoriented its mission to tend to children’s mental health, rather than just functioning as an orphanage like it had for decades prior. Now they provide a range of mental health services and social services to children and their families. Similar to many social service agencies, a large portion of Bellefaire's funding comes from government entities at a local, state, and federal level by means of the juvenile court, children’s services, the mental health board, and Medicaid. One reason some nonprofits sought after government/public funding is that private donors started to lose interest in consistently funding projects (Reingold). In an interview with Bellefaire’s Executive Director, Jeffery Lox, Lox discussed how when the economy is doing poorly, people tend to give less. In this case, an agency's income of charitable dollars may run low. This is one of the benefits of having other, bigger sources of funding, such as public dollars, to maintain the agency as best as possible when philanthropic dollars run low.