logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Nonprofit Aiding Kids of Prisoners Sees Success, But Funding Does Not Follow

Saras Chung
May 9, 2012
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

jail

pjcross / Shutterstock.com

May 7, 2012; Source: Chicago Tribune

Community Solutions, a nonprofit in El Paso, Texas that works to keep children of prisoners from following the same path as their parents, is at risk of shutting down after nine years due to dwindling funds. Within the past year, the organization has gone from a $500,000 budget to a meager $50,000 budget. The financial difficulties of the organization have forced the executive director, Carolyn Esparza, to reduce staff from seven to four, and now she must cut that down to two.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

This article says that, according to national statistics, approximately 70% of children of prisoners end up going to jail themselves and Texas has the largest prison population in the country. Still, Esparza said the federal government cut grant funding that was crucial to helping the organization operate. “Maybe we shouldn’t have been so dependent on it, but we hadn’t been able to find other sources of sustainability that would keep us growing financially by the time they zeroed out the grants,” Esparza said. In hopes of keeping the nonprofit’s work alive, Esparza is calling for the help of community professionals and those that work with at-risk youth in hopes they will donate to the organization.

“It’s very frustrating,” she said, especially given how helpful the program has apparently been to the children involved. The program provides mentoring as well as recreational, educational and social services to the children of prisoners. Out of the 300 kids that Community Solutions has served to date, Esparza noted, only five have “gotten into any kind of trouble.”

The difficult position Community Solutions finds itself in is reflective of many organizations that are at the mercy of government budget cuts. According to a 2009 Urban Institute report, government funding represents 65 percent of the total revenue of nonprofits that receive this type of financial support. These types of organizations must take heed as budget cuts for human service initiatives continue to loom at federal, state and local levels. Now may be the time for nonprofits to diversify their funding streams if at all possible, though in the case of Community Solutions, it is in a chronically underfunded field.Whether Esparza’s calls for help will result in a lifeline for the financially dwindling nonprofit is yet to be answered. – Saras Chung

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Saras Chung

Saras Chung is a PhD Candidate in Social Work at WashU. She promotes strategies in education for healthy and engaged youth.

More about: Financial ManagementHuman ServicesNonprofit NewsPolicy

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk
No Justice, No Peace of Mind and Body: The Health Impacts of Housing Insecurity for Black Women
Jhumpa Bhattacharya, Maile Chand and Andrea Flynn
The Human Impact of the Global Refugee Crisis Must Be Understood—And Acted Upon
Anmol Irfan
Black Americans Need Reparations: The Fight for the CTC Highlights the Roadblocks
Jhumpa Bhattacharya and Trevor Smith
Edgar Cahn’s Second Act: Time Banking and the Return of Mutual Aid
Steve Dubb

NPQ Webinars

June 14th, 2:00pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Race for Profit

Register Now
June 22nd, 12:30 pm ET

Making Co-CEOs Work

Insights from Leaders Sharing Leadership Successfully

Register Now
July 12th, 2:00 pm ET

Remaking the Economy

Tenant Organizing in Unexpected Places

Register Now
You might also like
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk
No Justice, No Peace of Mind and Body: The Health Impacts of...
Jhumpa Bhattacharya, Maile Chand and Andrea Flynn

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.