As my friends know, I only work with organizations that hold a public trust — typically non profit organizations. Many colleagues have been talking to me about how concerned they are about the latest downturn.

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is reporting on one of the more solid pieces of evidence that the economic downturn is affecting nonprofits. The news is not catastrophic, but it is not good.

According to a survey that will be released in May by the Association of Fundraising Professionals:

Reflecting the toll exacted by the economic downturn, the percentage of fund raisers whose institutions raised more money last year was a new low in the eight years the survey has been conducted. In a typical year, 60 percent of fund raisers in the survey report being able to raise more money.

And only 28 percent of the 481 fund raisers surveyed believe their organizations will raise more money this year, the lowest level of optimism found in the history of the survey. One-third of the organizations predicted they will raise less money in 2009.

While 14 percent of the fund raisers surveyed said their organizations raised about the same amount in both 2008 and 2007, 40 percent said that their organizations raised less last year. The decreases, the researchers said, were widespread across all types of organizations, encompassing charities of differing size and geographic location.

This news held across the board — that is, both large and small nonprofits are seeing the effects. This is different than past downturns, which were more painful to smaller nonprofits.