Non-profits brace for funding cuts; Organizations say they'll have to reduce service and staff or even close their doors if the state gives them less.(News)

Byline: JEREMY MULLMAN

Illinois non-profit organizations are bracing for cuts in state funding that, they fear, will result in service cutbacks and some outright program closures.

Some 31% of Illinois non-profits reported decreases in government funding last year, according to a study by the Donors Forum of Chicago, an association of area grantmakers. In 2004, even as the economy improves, non-profits could suffer more.

In the current budget cycle, the state gave more than $2.5 billion to social service agencies.

"I don't think the worst is behind us,'' says Bob Palmer, director of housing policy at the Statewide Housing Action Coalition.

Adds John M. Bouman, advocacy director at Chicago's Sargent Shriver National Center on Poverty Law: "The only thing we know for sure is that non-profits that partner with the state are going to cut services, cut staff and, in some cases, close their doors.''

To Walter Ousley, director of operations at Catholic Charities of the Archdiocese of Chicago, those are familiar refrains. His $164-million operation-a statewide social service agency that serves 600,000 people annually through 170 programs-is facing program cuts even if its budget stays flat, the result of rising costs.