"Nonprofits are counter-cyclical, so when pricing begins to godown, they start to look at ways that they might capitalize onlowering their expenses," Sunshine tells GlobeSt.com. "We surveyedabout 200 nonprofits, and nearly all said their currentdonor/funding levels had either moderately or significantly slowed.The reason they would try to come into the market is that pricesare at an all-time low again. So there's a lot of activity, butthere's also a lot of uncertainty."

Along with that uncertainty comes confusion. Sunshine citesrecent front-page articles in both the New York Times andthe Wall Street Journal that said the commercial real estatemarket is getting worse. "Yet when we're actually in the market,landlords are holding tough on rents for the moment," she says."We're not seeing as much decline as you would think from thepopular media."

Ultimately, "most nonprofits would like to stay put right now inthis economy, if given the choice," Sunshine says. "But they'restill looking for cost-effective alternatives," and suchalternatives do exist. "Many landlords are in distress, where youcan get a deal that is probably less expensive than it would havebeen six months now. There will be more properties in distress, andso there are many landlords that want to get good deals done."