Since it's feeling like we're all going down in a mutual fireball of financial disaster, this might be a good time to state a few things that are painfully obvious. But first, allow me to welcome the banking and auto industries to the nonprofit sector. We have a secret handshake here in the land of no taxes and public support, and please note that we meet regularly for coffee and bagels. In the nonprofit world, we like to share.

For years the heads of nonprofits have heard from leaders in the private sector that they need to behave more like for-profit businesses. The translation of this is, increase your earned revenue and rely less on contributed income. And the implication is moral: C'mon, stand on your own two feet and fight like a man.

We don't pretend that we can stand on our own two feet. We provide valuable stuff that the market alone cannot sustain. No, no, not Hummers. Human services, art and culture.

After sitting through countless speeches delivered by the high priests of capitalism about the need for the public sector to grow up and start acting like real entrepreneurs, it's fascinating to watch billionaires grovel for a share of taxpayer money. Hell, I've been doing that for years, sans the corporate jet and multimillion dollar bonus.

Meanwhile, no business in America, large or small, receives the level of scrutiny that nonprofits get. It comes in three fundamental forms. Trustees who review financial data on a monthly or quarterly basis, publicly available annual audits that have become increasing onerous and heavy handed, thanks to new federal regulations designed to create greater transparency in the for-profit world, and close scrutiny from public and private funding sources.

Every proposal submitted by a nonprofit, to either a government agency or a private foundation, is subject to rigorous review and follow-up. Private foundations, in particular, have become very good at analyzing and assessing the relative health of nonprofits. They hire experts in specific fields and often use outside consultants to further study a potential grantee. Government agencies often employ peer panels to review and rank proposals. The process actually strengthens organizations and goes a long way to protecting public investment.

Nonprofits should be held to a very high standard because they serve the public good and operate with tax-exempt money. So, move over. Now we have key industries in the for-profit world also floating on public money. And yet there does not seem to be the same sort of oversight that has been present for nonprofits for years.

Witness the speed with which the federal government came to the rescue of lenders and the auto industry. Billions in TARP money have been handed over with fewer conditions than a $5,000 Pennsylvania Council on the Arts grant made to a struggling puppet troupe.

I can tell you, with absolute certainty, that if I were to ask any foundation anywhere for a "bail out" I'd be laughed out of the room.

Sure, foundations help ailing organizations with extraordinary funding. I've even worked for a couple of them. But it is always done carefully, cautiously and with rigorous oversight. It is a process that takes months, or longer.

I'm not whistling past the graveyard. Nonprofits are in for a world of hurt in the coming months. The first priority will naturally be to support human services, where there is immediate suffering. This is right, and proper. And on this very page I have argued in the past that the arts benefit when the economy benefits.

But, and this is a very big but, we must also remember that the arts are here for the long haul. There are cultural organizations in this community that date back over 100 years. They have contributed mightily to not just the quality of life in the region but the very character of the region.

I used to fight with Pittsburgh Mayor Tom Murphy about whether or not is was art or sport that defined our community. It was a stalemate, except that he was mayor and I was ... uh, well, nobody. It appears I still haven't gotten over it.

The argument I'm making is simple and obvious. We must act now to ensure that the arts are not eviscerated during this financial crisis, or we will emerge from this disaster with little more than, to quote everyone and no one, "the taste of ashes in our mouths."

I fear for the health of culture locally and nationally. Of course I worry about the organizations I am running or helping to govern. But it is the entire landscape that is in serious jeopardy.

Trouble is coming and the time to prepare for it is now, not when we've maxed out our lines of credit in hope for a better quarter next quarter, or when we've shuttered valuable programs and laid off dedicated, smart and extremely hard-working employees. The time to assess the threat is now, collectively, and as quantitatively as possible.

While I've always said that any meeting that concludes with the commissioning of a study is a failed meeting, I believe we need to convene over the state of the arts, and we need to do it right now.

Who should do it? One leader from the foundation community, one leader from the private sector, one leader from government and one leader from the arts. Anytime a foundation leader calls a meeting, everyone comes; even if no knows what it's about. That's just life on the Serengeti.

We need be to on top of this, to ensure there will something to be on top of in 2010. We can't meet to decide how to meet, and we can't worry about who's in and who is out. Everybody in the water, it's family swim time. And we will either swim together or we will drown alone.