The Tennessean printed a story in today’s Davidson AM on how the recession has reduced contributions to the Iroquois Steeplechase event in addition to other nonprofits:

Nonprofit organizations have struggled through the recession to help more people in need with fewer resources, said Lewis Lavine, president of the Center for Nonprofit Management, a group that works with more than 750 nonprofit groups in Middle Tennessee.

Those who have continued to give have shifted their focus from donating to long-term projects such as endowments and new buildings to supporting basic operational needs of agencies to keep them afloat, he said.

“Those agencies that are providing basic human needs, social services in particular … corporations, foundations and individuals seem to be focusing on those needs rather than on the arts. Generally, arts organizations’ funding has been down more than some of the social services agencies’. The tradeoff is that some of the needs of those social services have increased,” he said.

Although attendance at most fundraising events has remained pretty strong, it’s the corporate sponsorship that’s suffered, Lavine said.

“What we’re seeing is that companies want to continue to give but at lower amounts. They seem to be restricting their giving to what they consider high-priority agencies, and their gifts are frequently less than what they were in the past.”

The trend was evident in May at the Steeplechase, Cheek said.

“Our box seat area was sold out, our tailgating area was sold out,” she said. “In our general admissions area, those numbers were down some. We did notice a decrease in our corporate tent sales area. That was a direct reflection of the economy and the entertainment budgets being slashed.”