For Citymeals-on-Wheels, a nonprofit group that delivers food to homebound New Yorkers, the Wall Street crisis already means 100,000 fewer meals will be delivered to people who need them.
One day in the spring, the group lost about $500,000 it expected from employees of Bear Stearns as the firm collapsed.
A few days later, $225,000 promised by a hedge fund vanished after its stock plummeted, said Executive Director Marcia Stein.
Across New York, nonprofit organizations are anxiously tracking the demise of longtime donors such as Lehman Brothers, Merrill Lynch, American International Group and Bear Stearns, as Wall Street's problems begin to trickle down to the city's poorest residents.
"If you ask me about what the future is going to look like in the next couple years, it's going to hurt like hell," said JoAnne Page, the president and chief executive of the Fortune Society, which serves adults leaving prison.
While it is still too early to ascertain the full impact of the financial crisis and a slowing economy on organizations that serve the poor, one consultant to nonprofit agencies said a handful of executive directors already have contacted him because they are unsure how to raise enough money to continue providing services.
Reynold Levy, president of Lincoln Center and author of the book "Give and Take: A Candid Account of Corporate Philanthropy," said he is cautiously optimistic about donors' ability to recover and support nonprofit groups.
"In any given five years, philanthropy more than recovers," he said, acknowledging that he was speaking about data for short and shallow recessions. He said the country's recent aggregation of wealth in the hands of a smaller number of people means that these people have excess to give. "There's an enormous amount of money out there."
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