The Barry County United Way kicked off its annual fundraising season Sept. 17 and, like almost every other nonprofit, it has had to reassess how to connect with the community.
“I think that what COVID has done is really change the way we react and we engage with the people that we so trust and admire to be our partners,” Barry Community Foundation Chief Executive Officer and Executive Director Bonnie Gettys said. “We just really need to keep a pulse on the community and see where we can be relevant.”
Many of the usual in-person events that local nonprofits would host to raise money and build awareness for their programs had to be canceled.
“Basically every event that we've been planning on holding has been canceled,” Barry County Family Promise Executive Director Martha Ports said.
That organization has raised about half its usual amount in fundraising this year.
“It's a really complicated situation that nonprofits are in right now,” Ports said. “Nothing is the same from six months ago.”
“All of our agencies really operate on slim margins, and they do an amazing amount of work on the dollars they have to operate on,” Barry County United Way Executive Director Lani Forbes said.
The margin is even thinner this year.
Forbes said United Way local partner organizations have fallen more than $200,000 short of what they had expected to raise this year, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Even when events are possible to hold with social distancing, they are still impacted by the pandemic.
Some aspects of the Bill Porter Memorial Charity Golf Classic, which the Barry Community Foundation hosted last month, had to be cut or altered to observe social distancing guidelines.
“It was a much different golf outing for us this year -- and that showed in the revenue,” Gettys said.
The foundation was able to give out about half the amount that it would usually have raised in that event.
Barry County Habitat for Humanity Executive Director Cindy Preston said the nonprofit's ReStore, which sells new and used furniture, appliances, home accessories and building materials raises about $10,000 a month. During the state shutdown, the store lost around $25,000 in potential sales.
“That is a significant impact,” Preston said.
One the upside, since people have been stuck at home, they have been cleaning out their residences and finding items to give to the store.
“Donations are higher than they've ever been,” Preston said.
But Preston said the sales aren't making up for the time the store was shut down.
“Because we are continually fundraising with our ReStore -- time lost is time lost,” she added.
Habitat for Humanity did have a reserve fund, which has paid for its utilities, but the organization was not able to build a new house this year.
Green Gables Haven Community Shelter had to cancel its annual Nibbles, Novelists and New Beginnings fundraiser, which brought in more than $13,000 last year, Executive Director Janie Bergeron said.
“That was a big deal for us,” Bergeron said.
Some organizations and businesses sent in money even after the event was canceled, which covered the expenses that the shelter had already put into the planning.
“There's been a lot of very, very generous people during this time, too,” Bergeron said.
The shelter's biggest event, an annual charity auction and dinner, is supposed to take place in February.
“I'm hoping and praying to God that we're able to go full speed ahead with our fundraiser in February,” Bergeron said. “That's a scary one. That's about $50,000... We're just kind of waiting to see what's going to happen.”
Bergeron said the organizers are proceeding as if it will be able to happen, but also are trying to come up with back-up plans for fundraisers if it doesn't.
Nonprofits have come up a variety of creative ways to fundraise. And they have found some silver linings in the process.
Pierce Cedar Creek Institute's A Latesummer Night's Green raises money for the biological station summer research programs and community programming. It's typically a dinner and auction, but this year it became an online raffle and auction.
With $8,500 from event sponsors, a matching $8,500 from an anonymous donor and $14,815 from more than 100 institute member donors, the online event raised more than $34,000. It wasn't as much as the $46,000 raised last year, but it reached a larger and broader demographic of donors.
“It just gave more people the opportunity,” Development Director Cathy Hart-Jansma said. “A lot more people participated than come to our usual fundraisers.”
“I was really pleasantly surprised by the outpouring of support for our fundraiser. I wasn't really sure how it would go,” Hart-Jansma said. “It has meant a lot.”
Family Promise came up with new events, such as Night Without a Bed, in which donors slept in tents, cars, chairs or on the floor for a night in a virtual fundraiser.
Ports said the idea became a surprise success, although it still wasn't able to raise as much as an in-person event.
The Barry County YMCA had to reassess its entire programming structure when the pandemic started in March, CEO and Executive Director Jon Sporer said.
A new focus was put on delivering meals and developing childcare services. When the community saw the effort, they wanted to support those programs.
“They could see the results of their donations more tangibly,” Sporer said. “The longer we continued receiving those, the more validation we had.”
“A lot of people recognized how many meals we provided for the community,” he said.
The Y delivered 40,000 meals to young people between March and June. The meals were paid for with government funding, but the cost of delivery was paid for with donations. Local businesses also donated supplies, including a trailer and refrigerator.
“We were very aware that people were supporting our organization, so we felt a greater sense to provide service,” Sporer said.
Organizations also have been able to patch fundraising holes with grants and government loans.
“That has been a blessing to us,” Ports said.
However, those often only cover certain expenses.
“Almost all the grants we've done lately are COVID-related, but we need money for our operating funds,” Ports said.
In Barry County, nonprofits have come together to share information and advice.
Forbes said organization directors meet once a month to work together.
“We are working together on how to resolve issues constantly,” she said. “One of those best things about Barry County is that it is about those that we are serving and how we work together to solve those issues.”
“It seems like a lot of nonprofits are helping each other as they go online for the first time,” Ports said.
In other communities, organizations compete for funding, but in Barry County they figure out how funding could best be utilized across each organization and write each other into grants, Forbes said.
Many families have needs that span different organizations, and having an entire network of support is the best way to help them, she added.
A constant refrain from many leaders of nonprofits is the amount of support they receive from their local community.
“We love Barry County. They support us always through thick and thin. We're very lucky to be here,” Preston said.
“Barry County is the full reason why we're here and so successful in helping people,” Bergeron said.
Information on how to donate is available through the United Way, and through area nonprofit websites.
Forbes encouraged people to call the United Way for help and advice on donating.
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