Hawaii People’s Fund / Last week, the Weekly spoke with Nancy Aleck, executive director of Hawaii People’s Fund, an umbrella social service organization that helps to fund non-profit groups actively working for social justice. We asked Aleck how non-profits, particularly the grassroots groups HPF is known for assisting, are faring in this recession, and for her thoughts on what kinds of support these groups really need.

How is the economic situation affecting nonprofits? Have people stopped giving?

I would say it is changing, and that there are probably several different types of nonprofits feeling an impact. The small grassroots groups are feeling it the least, because they were struggling to begin with. They don’t have paid staff, their leaders finance many of their efforts themselves. It’s just that it’s now even harder, because digging into your own pocket gets harder.

Social service organizations that are trying to do good work have seen many of their stable resources start to dry up, including government funding. Most of our grantees don’t get funding from the government, so groups dealing with sex abuse, domestic violence, immigration problems, housing, homelessness, the funds they used to count on aren’t here any more.

Ultimately, we’re seeing fishnets on the corner. People are standing on the corner waving fishing nets at passing cars. I personally find that intrustive and annoying, but it points to a kind of desperation, and people do desperate things in desperate times.

Is there any silver lining to any of this?

It’s a good time to reflect on communal values and economic ideas that can lift all boats. That’s the main thing.

Also, organizations tend to be very focused on their own missions and tasks and work. But given that people are forced to do with more with less, they’re forming partnerships, and some [grantmakers] are offering funding for collaboration of different sorts.

It could be as simple as sharing office space or administrative functions, all the way to programmatic efforts.

Any chance some of these groups will reduce their overhead permanently?

I think there’s a good potential for [organizations to reduce administrative overheard permanently]. I tend to be a person who wants to make lemonade. When you start figuring out how to do more with less resources, sometimes you do better work. So that’s a positive thing that in the short term can be a useful tool.

One of the questions we ask of groups seeking funding is ‘how will you do this if you don’t get all the money you’re asking for?’ It forces people to think about how to do the same things in a low-tech environment.

Arts cuts. Does it frustrate you to hear so much about this, when social services are being cut so deeply?

The public at large doesn’t respond to things that don’t impact them directly. Furloughs impact a lot of people personally. It really to me is the tip of the iceberg of a rotten system.

The last time Hawaii had a really bad economy [in the early 1990s], Mercedes Benz and BMW built new showrooms. Not everyone is suffering at the same level. It’s sad to see the symphony going under when they are supported by people in the upper economic echelons. Hawaii is known to have more millionaires than anywhere else. Why aren’t we supporting our symphony?

On the other hand, General Assistance is going to be cut [by one-third] to $300 per month, and that goes to the weakest of the weakest, people with severe physical and mental challenges. It’s a temporary fix while people are waiting for federal disability to come through. Imagine living on $300.