The Center for Nonprofit Advancement, a local entity, is encouraging residents/nonprofits to submit a form letter to Mayor Adrian Fenty urging him to shore up the budget shortfall and help protect the city’s safety net for its neediest residents:

“This week, D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty will be finalizing plans to address the District’s new $340 million revenue shortfall. We need to send him a message right now that he should protect key services — especially the safety net — as he works to balance the budget. In particular, we need to urge the Mayor to tap DC’s rainy day fund and to raise revenues — as more than half the states have done this year.”

The letter reads in part:

“Addressing the new revenue shortfall will require the District’s leaders to make increasingly difficult budget decisions. Falling revenue collections already required $800 million in budget-saving measures in the FY 2010 budget, including cuts in virtually every DC agency. The new shortfall — totaling $340 million in FY 2009 and FY 2010 — means that an even wider range of gap-closing options will need to be considered.”

The letter goes on to list various ways Fenty could save money such as tapping into the rainy day fund, the Nats stadium fund, and imposing a new sales tax on concert tickets. You can check out the letter here.