The National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy recently released a report, called The State of Multi-Year Funding, which revealed a significant drop in this critical aspect of nonprofit fundraising.

"The numbers confirm what nonprofits have been reporting to us anecdotally: that multi-year funding is a scarce commodity," said Aaron Dorfman, executive director of NCRP. "During the economic crisis, when flexible, long-term support would have been most helpful to nonprofits, philanthropy was missing in action."

Between 2008 and 2010, multi-year funding averaged around $5.7 billion, but it has since dropped 37 percent, according to the report. This important source of funding helps organizations remain financially sustainable, increase capacity and bolster effectiveness. For instance, a nonprofit that has long-term support can more easily plan for the future, retain staff members and leaders and ride out crises.

This is more of a problem in the Southern states, the study found, pointing out that Western states have actually seen an uptick in long-term funding, largely owed to the grants made by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Organizations that have noticed this trend can improve their chances of survival by using grant management software to closely account for fund disbursement and ensure it's being used most effectively.