By Janey Fugate
The Rockbridge area’s slow recovery from the recession is partly to blame for the struggles of some local nonprofit agencies, their advocates say.
The Rockbridge Rapids recently announced it would not field another team next year. The Theater at Lime Kiln folded its tent late in 2012, and the Virginia Horse Center is seeking the county’s help as it struggles to make payments on a loan that is keeping it afloat.
“It’s a sign of the times,” said Bill Luton, former president of the Rapids.
Luton said that when people have fewer dollars and less time to spend on charity or service, they usually contribute to nonprofits that attack specific and urgent needs.
“We can’t compete with rural hunger,” he said.
Ken Newman, Rapids vice-president, and Luton cited a lack of volunteerism and a decline in both the number of host families and the number of players interested in coming to Lexington as critical causes of the Rapids’ fold.
But they also said organizations like the Rapids are finding that people in a small community who have supported the team in the past are already spread thin among many agencies.
Luton worries that other community nonprofits will suffer because of the Rapids’ failure. Cancer awareness, Girl Scouts, and local elementary schools are among the groups that shared income from the Rapids games or reaped benefits through the team’s awareness programs.
Mike Stolarz, a former Lime Kiln board member, said the tight economy has forced many nonprofits to go into “sabbatical mode.”
Stolarz identified an ineffective business model and lack of connection to the local community as factors that contributed to Lime Kiln’s closing. The theater’s audience consisted mostly of tourists and visitors, not locals, he said.
The city of Lexington each year gives money to several local nonprofits. But City Council Member George Pryde said the city has an unofficial policy of giving priority to agencies that provide health and social services.
“[The Theater at Lime Kiln and the Rockbridge Rapids] are looked at as different animals because they are in the entertainment business,” Pryde said.
Pryde acknowledged the groups’ economic impact locally. But what they provide the community isn’t as necessary as the services other nonprofits do, he said.
While entertainment nonprofits struggle, many human services agencies are growing despite a tight economy and the small community. Marisa Frey, coordinator of student service leadership and research at Washington and Lee University, says many are expanding the services they offer.
For example, the Community Table, a restaurant-style nonprofit that offers locals a free or reduced-price dinner once a week, has expanded its program to offer lunch every Wednesday, beginning in October.
Donors’ generosity and new grants made that possible, said Community Table Vice President George Chapman.
Increasingly, Frey says, nonprofits are looking for diverse sources of funding, including government grants. That makes them more resilient in a tight economy because they can rely less on private donations.
“The diversification of funding for nonprofits in general over the last five years has blown up,” said Frey.
But another reason for the relative success of social and health services nonprofits in the Rockbridge area is the existence of real need in the community. Nonprofits continue to operate because poverty in the area is pervasive.
Chapman says one of Community Table’s goals is to integrate people from different socioeconomic tiers in order to raise awareness.
“We are trying to put a human face on what can be a very invisible problem for people,” he said.
Frey agreed. “We’re a very wealthy city situated in one of the poorer per capita counties in Virginia,” she said.
Project Horizon is a local agency that provides shelter and advocacy for victims of domestic violence and sexual assault. The nonprofit relies on diverse funding and volunteer support. But Executive Director Judy Casteele also attributes the agency’s success to the spirit of service in the community.
“I know that our community is very generous and very supportive in services,” Casteele said.
But she says she also recognizes that generosity cannot always bridge the gap in hard times for nonprofits that focus on culture or entertainment.
“It would be harder to fund services that people would see as entertainment,” Casteele said. “But I think they are very important to the social fabric of the community.”