Nonprofits already hurting in the recession may face more trouble as the traditional giving season approaches. A survey of donors in the LGBT community shows about a third plan to give less this year.

According to the survey results, announced last month by the San Francisco-based Horizons Foundation, 35 percent reported plans to give less in 2009 than in 2008. Of those, about one in five expect to reduce their giving by at least 25 percent.

Sixteen percent of respondents expect to increase their giving.

The issues around giving aren't really about the fact that some people in the nonprofit sector have lost their jobs or that organizations have had to "tighten their belts," said Roger Doughty, Horizons' executive director.

The loss of donations hurts nonprofits in other ways.

"It's ultimately about members of our community who cannot access the services they need. It's people who need advocates who can't get them, and so the impact is really measured in people's daily lives," said Doughty.

Horizons Foundation, which recently had a kickoff celebration in advance of its 30th anniversary next year, gathers money from individual donors, mainstream foundations, and corporate supporters and funnels it primarily to LGBT organizations throughout the Bay Area, though Doughty said other agencies have also received grants.

Last year, the foundation distributed about $2.2 million in grants. Horizons' 2009 budget is $2.4 million, Doughty said.

Karin Martin, an independent researcher based at the University of California, Berkeley's Goldman School of Public Policy, carried out the survey.

Seven LGBT organizations, including the San Francisco LGBT Community Center and the National Center for Lesbian Rights, distributed the online survey to their donors, according to Horizons. Findings from the survey, which was conducted over July and August, are based on 1,943 responses.

It's too soon to say exactly how a decrease in donations could play out this year.

"A very large portion of individual giving happens in the last two months of the year," Doughty said.

Last November, California voters passed Proposition 8 by 52 percent, changing the state's constitution to ban same-sex marriage. A state ballot initiative to repeal Prop 8 could appear in 2010, and the survey asked donors about the impact of such a measure.

Thirty percent responded that it would lead them to cut their giving to other LGBT organizations and causes. One out of four respondents said that their contributions to marriage-related efforts in 2008 had resulted in their decreasing their giving to other LGBT organizations and causes.

Opponents of Prop 8 had raised more than $40 million in their efforts to defeat the measure with many small donations from individuals, particularly after the No on 8 campaign put out an urgent plea for money in the last weeks of the campaign.

Doughty said that in the survey, people were asked about "their giving to LGBT causes other than marriage, because otherwise you had this huge jump last year, for good and obvious reasons."

Despite the troublesome survey findings, some people do plan to give more this year.

Leonie Walker, a member of Horizons' board, said that she and her wife, Dr. Kate O'Hanlan, are increasing their giving to Horizons this year by 50 percent. She declined to say how much they're giving.

Walker said that the couple's overall level of philanthropy would increase by about 20 to 25 percent this year.

She referred to the couple's giving as "a moral and ethical responsibility."

Many of their friends have lost jobs or income and are struggling to make mortgage or tuition payments, she said.

"People have been severely affected ...," said Walker. "If we don't keep it up, who's going to?"

Judy Whittier is director of community resources for the Bill Wilson Center in Santa Clara, which is focused on helping youth.

The center's budget is about $10.5 million, the same as last year's, when Horizons, in partnership with the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, gave it a $10,000 HIV/AIDS community grant through the 2008 AIDS Walk and AIDS Marathon.

Whittier said that one trend the center is seeing is that people are making fewer donations.

She said that most of the center's budget comes from government grants, as well as private and corporate foundations, but "individual donors are key to us being able to do our work."

For example, Whittier said there are restrictions on what government grants can be used for, and donations from individuals can help pay for what might not be covered otherwise, such as operating costs and salaries.

For more information about Horizons, visit www.horizonsfoundation.org.