Recession Mixed Blessing for NGOs

With the current economic recession NGO's are receiving more volunteers and less donations. NGO's hope that G-20 fixes the situation. By Noquel A. Matos

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By Noquel A. Matos

NEW YORK- As the leaders of the world’s top 20 largest economies scratched their heads and thought hard about a solution to the present global recession in the G-20 summon in Pittsburgh this past Friday, Ellen Friedland prepared herself to go for a walk during her mid day lunch break. Friedland, an accredited representative at Safe Horizon Immigration Law Project -- a nonprofit organization specialized in Immigration Law (ILP)-- could not afford to take a proper lunch break 12 months ago with the overload of work at her under staff office. However, thanks to the influx of recent graduates unable to find jobs in the current economic climate, Friedland can emerge from her cramped office surrounded by piles of files to enjoy her lunch in the daylight of Downtown Brooklyn.

Friedland and the other three permanent members of Safe Horizon ILP’S small staff have found many graduates who might otherwise have landed jobs at private firm now wanting to ride out the recession in the nonprofit sector. For this fall the office has received four non-paid interns, two upper level college students and two recent law graduates.

Nonetheless, for Friedland this sudden windfall creates problems of its own. “It takes a lot of time and work to train these interns. The ideal situation would be to get the funds to pay them so they stay. That way we do not get stuck with the work when they leave.”

Like many people in the nonprofit world, Friedland bristles at  the idea that NGO’s are winners in this economic crisis.

Due to the pro-bono work that NGOs perform, Nonprofit Organizations depend heavily upon private donors and public donations to pay their employees’ salaries and maintain their offices running. Since the crash of the stock market in 2008 and the subsequent current economic recession NGOs have lost most of their funding from discourage donors. As a result, most NGOs have been forced to dramatically cut salaries and only offer non-paid positions.

Safe Horizon ILP despite being funded through the Safe Horizon network, one of the biggest NGOs in the North East, had to move from their previous location in Jackson Heights, Queen that they resided at for the last two decades, to downtown Brooklyn because of low funds.

Out of the four non-paid interns working at Safe Horizon ILP, the two college students are scheduled to leave this coming December once they have completed the time required by their college internship program. In addition, out of the two law graduates working at the office, one is schedule to leave this coming January, upon termination of his temporary Fellowship through Brooklyn Law School to work for three months with a NGO of his choice.

“I was hoping to get a job now,” 29 years old Cristina Vargas, the prospective remaining intern at Safe Horizon ILP, expressed. Vargas, who graduated from Brooklyn Law School in 2007, has not found a permanent job since graduation. Prior to her volunteer employment with Safe Horizon she worked with the Diocesan Migrant & Refugee Services (DMRS) in El Paso, Texas, another NGO specialized in providing immigration legal services to low income immigrants. Although Vargas did not get paid in that job,  either, she got her student loans substantially reduce as part of a loan repayment assistance program called LRAP offered by Brooklyn School Law for student who dedicate to a career in public service after graduation. However, she still owes around $70,000 dollars.

Vargas’s story is like that of many graduate level students who decide to dedicate their lives to public service. Unlike other fellow students that decide to work on the private sector whom get job offers upon graduation on their sophomore year, students that decide they want to work for NGOs when they graduate have to wait until graduation to find out if NGOs are able to hire them. NGOs as opposed to private companies cannot secure employment for students due to their unpredictable budgets base on donations.

This accompanying risk that comes with choosing a career in public service has maximize with the economic recession making it even harder for NGOs to stabilize their budgets. As a reaction governmental offices and educational institutions have strived to motivate students to pursue careers in public service by offering them economical benefits. Students employed by NGOs after graduation are given the opportunity to have their school loans deferred and the option to freeze their loans increasing interest rates.

 Nevertheless, these benefits are only temporary and in no way come close to matching the economic retribution that graduates choosing to work for the private field are receiving.

For example, a lawyer working for the public sector (NGO’s) would traditionally make a third of the salary of someone working for a private firm. In the wake of the economic recessions this 1/3 has turned in to zero percent for most people. With the current economic situation making NGOs struggled to make ends meet the question has not become whether professionals are willing to work for less pay to help the public as to whether they are willing to not get pay at all.

“This is my ideal job” Vargas said about Safe Horizon while she fixed the blind on her window with both of her hands. “A small, intimate small nonprofit dedicated to serving immigrants… If I could earn a living I would stay here indefinitely, but it’s $70, 000, $70, 000 that I have to pay!”

With G-20 officials only making vows to reshape the global economy this past Friday, NGOs just hope that their discourage donors remain generous in the middle of uncertain economical times. Otherwise, people like Ellen who work for NGOs that depend on donations and people like Vargas that hope to work for them will have to make the hard decision of working for free or turning to the private sector.