St. Paul Legal Non-Profit To Close Monday; Victim Of Economy

In St. Paul, Minnesota, the Star Tribune reports:

• [M]onday will be the last day for Centro Legal, a St. Paul nonprofit that has provided low-cost legal services to Minnesota's Hispanic community since 1981. The agency is in debt and out of resources, hit by a "perfect storm" of circumstances, not the least of which is a teetering economy that is hampering or threatening pretty much every nonprofit in the state.

• Linda Tacke sounded weary and sad. A management transition specialist, Tacke was hired as interim director in December to see if Centro could be saved. "I think I'd like to blame it on the economy," Tacke said. When she was hired, "I looked at everything financial people look at, and it was real compromised at that point. It is a victim of the perfect storm nonprofits are in. Foundations were unable to give because they were focusing on basic needs. It's hard to focus on immigrant needs when your focus is on food and shelter. In a different economy, we might have made it."

For more, see Centro Legal's demise leaves gaping hole in safety net.