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“We can be used to make sure that the impact is felt at a lower or lesser degree, which is important for nonprofits that are trying to identify high net worth individuals who are still giving during a time of financial distress.”

ARUP BANERJEE CEO, WINDFALL DATA

nonprofits to rely more on individual donations. Banerjee believes nonprofits — and his company — can learn from that experience should a recession hit. “We can be used to make sure that the impact is felt at a lower or lesser degree, which is important for nonprofits that are trying to identify high net worth individuals who are still giving during a time of financial distress,” he said. “Similar to how we’ve helped nonprofits weather the storm with (shrinking) donations from corporations, we’ll help them weather (a recession).” Windfall has also adjusted its business model to hedge against a possible recession and the belt-tightening that can occur among nonprofits during an economic downturn. “That’s been a little bit of how we’ve adjusted our business … not just to have an annual subscription but have a longer-term contract with locked- in prices so that their budgets can

accommodate that for the future,” he said. “Ensure that we have their budget in 2020, 2021 so we don’t necessarily have to go back to the finance department (for approval).” Despite taking some steps to cushion the blow of a possible future slowdown, Banerjee noted he’s not seeing any imminent signs of slowing among Windfall’s nonprofit clients. “It’s a little bit hard to prepare for a recession right now while things are continuing to grow at a rapid pace,” he said. “Nothing is indicating that our customers are slowing down … in making investments to acquire those new customers. … We’re more focused on helping our customers grow and expand.” Mortgage: A Recession Silver Lining LendingTree’s Kapfidze argues that a recession could benefit the mortgage industry.

a decline in government stimulus combined with a long expansion, suggesting the economy will need to rebalance,” he said. “It’s important to note that such a recession would not resemble the financial crisis- induced recession at the end of the last decade. It would likely be a milder downturn similar to that in 1990 to 1991 or 2001.” If the predicted 2020 recession follows the patterns of those earlier recession rather than the 2007-to- 2009 recession, Kapfidze argues it would likely result in rebounding refinance originations, which have dropped in the last two quarters as mortgage rates have risen. “During those recessions, the 10-year treasury had peak-to-trough declines of 80 to 120 bps,” Kapfidze explained. “This is where it gets interesting for the mortgage industry. A rate decline would trigger a mini-refi boom that would address many of the challenges the industry currently faces due to the

“Most discussions around a possible recession in 2020 center around

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