With the results of a recently released study showing the Memphis nonprofit community suffering a “postrecession recession,” Nashville’s nonprofits, by comparison, are challenged yet stable.

“We haven’t done a study here and don’t have comparables, but if we did, we would find [the situation] would be very different here,” said Lewis Lavine, president of the Rolling Mill Hill-based Center for Nonprofit Management. “We have a very solid philanthropic base in Nashville.”

The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported Sunday the Memphis-based Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence study revealed 72 percent of the Bluff City’s nonprofit organizations saw higher service demands in 2011, and 42 percent said revenues were down. Also, 60 percent of survey respondents last year lost a major funding source, and half saw their federal funding reduced.

Rebecca Finley, communications director with the Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee, said the Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence study findings are “surprising” to an extent.

“I wouldn’t have thought it’s as dramatic a loss of funding as the Commercial Appeal reported,” she said.

Finley said CFMT is considering conducting a similar survey for Nashville-area nonprofits.

“We have discussed creating an annual survey,” she said. “We’d like to get more concrete numbers.”

Hundreds of Tennessee businesses have lost their nonprofit, 501c3 status with the federal government for failing to register with the government for three consecutive years.

NewsChannel5 reports that Lewis Lavine, president of Nashville's Center for Nonprofit Management, has never seen a similar crackdown on nonprofits — and he's glad to see the government taking action:

"And so we are, frankly, pleased that the IRS is coming in and closing down non-profits that either aren't productive, aren't active, or aren't operating like a business should," said Lewis Lavine, president of CNM.