Eighty-one percent of non-government organizations operating
in Israel are facing financial difficulties, including 22
percent in serious trouble financially, according to a survey
of 220 organizations released by the Center for Research of
the Third Sector at Ben Gurion University in cooperation with
the Civic Leadership Organization, an umbrella group for
Israeli nonprofit organizations, and Shatil.
According to the survey data, 3,500 of Israel's 27,000 NGOs
are in danger of closing. "Three blows landed on the third
sector [i.e. non-government and nonprofit organizations]
— a decline in the value of the dollar, the
philanthropic crisis engendered by the economic crisis and
the third blow was government inaction," said Dr. Yaron
Sokolov, director of the Civic Leadership Organization, at
the conference where the survey results were presented.
"The government has the ability and obligation to reduce the
additional blows. So far, despite our requests to the Prime
Minister and the Finance Ministry, almost nothing has been
done. We are witnessing the same phenomenon we experienced
during the Second Lebanon War when the government fell asleep
on its watch and third-sector organizations were the first to
help out. My feeling is that in the current situation of an
economic emergency the government is dragging its feet. Every
day we're seeing further blows landing on the sector, the
most recent being the Madoff Affair, which was damaging to
Israeli NGOs."
The survey shows about half of the organizations experienced
reduced income in 2008 and 63 percent of NGOs anticipate
decreased revenues in 2009 as well, while 34 percent think
the decrease will be substantial. Although 58 percent
reported that they are not yet considering closure, 13
percent are weighing it as an option. Seventy-four percent
held the state should act to assist them.
"We're asking the government to recognize that many of the
organizations provide basic services that make up for what
the state stopped providing," said Sokolov. "The collapse of
organizations would harm the scope of services and the weaker
segments of the population."
The organizations attribute the current situation to a drop
in donations (46 percent) and changes in the dollar exchange
rate (47 percent), saying that increases in operating
expenses (28 percent) and salary costs exacerbated the
problem. According to the survey figures, 30 percent of
organizations already cut programs in 2008, 22 percent
postponed executing planned programs and 13 percent
discontinued programs. Fifteen percent of social service
organizations dismissed employees in 2008 and 20 percent are
considering dismissals in 2009.
