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Downturn Threatens 100K Charities

By Harry Kimball, Newser Staff

Posted Jan 24, 2009 2:45 PM CST

(Newser) – The economic crisis isn’t just hurting Wall Street executives—it also spells dark times for the charities they once supported, the Wall Street Journal reports. The number of US nonprofits climbed from about 750,000 a decade ago to more than a million today, but watchers say 100,000 could drop off in the next year. And those that don’t shutter are facing heartbreaking cutbacks.

Take the Harlem Children’s Zone in New York: The program for poor children was once funded by Lehman Brothers, now bankrupt, and a charity that tanked thanks to Bernie Madoff. Children's Zone also lost $2.7 million of its own in the financier's alleged Ponzi scheme. “You start thinking, ‘Jesus, is anything safe?’” said the charity's founder, who laid off 10% of his workers.

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Children are handed free gifts in New York at the Healthfirst Winter Wonderland event. (AP Photo)

A nonprofit that runs a day-care center licensed for 38 children and a transitional housing program for homeless families could be in trouble. (AP Photo)

The flags on the facade of the New York Stock Exchange are a backdrop for a Wall Street street sign. (AP Photo)

In a depressed urban area, graffiti calls for help. (AP Photo)

Keri Rainsberger cleans the dinner dishes for members of her "intentional community" at the Keystone Ecological Urban Center in Chicago, Sunday, July 20, 2008. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)

Christi Anderson, a project manager with Habitat for Humanity, delivers some wood to the Halsey Street 9-unit condominium project on Tuesday, Aug. 7, 2007 in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan)

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In communities like Harlem, laying off people in the midst of this recession, it literally means they're not going to be able to get another job. They'll end up being our clients, one way or another. - Geoffrey Canada, Harlem Children's Zone founder

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