Prices are up. So is the need for services. How nonprofits are coping.
With inflation at a 40-year high and no quick end in sight, companies in the United States are adjusting to a new normal. Many are passing along higher prices to customers, rethinking products and services, and negotiating with suppliers, while upping their salaries in a tight labor market.
For nonprofits that face the same inflationary pressures, that adjustment is much harder. Unlike for-profit businesses, they can’t simply raise prices or switch out unprofitable product lines. And labor shortages are increasingly forcing them to compete with private employers to hire and retain staff.
“McDonald’s can charge an extra nickel for their fries,” says Isaac Seliger, a Phoenix-based consultant who assists nonprofits with grant applications. For his clients, “the revenues don’t go up. But the costs go up.”
Tax-exempt nonprofits provide a myriad of services, from early education to
