Nonprofits in the U.S. emerged from the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic better than feared, thanks to what we now know was record charitable giving as well as the lifeline provided by the federal government through the Payment Protection Program (PPP).
The American public and policymakers alike should take the lessons of 2020 to heart and continue to support the vast and diverse array of nonprofits in the U.S. that strengthen our communities and change lives for the better.
Giving surged to $471 billion in 2020, according to Giving USA 2021: The Annual Report on Philanthropy for the Year 2020, released last week. This record giving, along with federal funding, helped stave off what could have been a catastrophic situation for the country’s nonprofits.
In a May 2020 survey of a panel of nonprofits, the Center for Effective Philanthropy, the organization I lead, found that the leaders of those organizations were bracing for the worst. More than 81 percent expected they’d have to reduce programs and services, and 80 percent thought they’d need to tap reserves. ...
.... the crisis of 2020 was brutal for nonprofits. Human services organizations faced unprecedented demand for their services — we all saw the lines of cars at food pantries on the evening news, for example. Performing arts organizations saw revenues from ticket sales evaporate and, indeed, our research shows that arts and culture organizations suffered more than others.
But, thanks to stepped up giving by foundations and individuals and a massive infusion of resources from the forgivable PPP loans, most nonprofits were able to persevere through the crisis. The lessons learned along the way matter.
First, nonprofits are vital frontline responders — every day and in times of crisis. Nonprofits and their staff stepped up to mitigate the worst effects of the pandemic — playing roles government and business couldn’t or wouldn’t. ...
Fourth, it’s often small, unsung nonprofits that are doing the vital work with the populations that most need our support — and we need to trust them to do the work they know how to do. For nonprofits, smallness is often an asset, because it means the organization has its roots in — and is trusted by — the community it serves. As we saw the dramatically disproportionate toll of the pandemic and economic downturn on certain populations, it was community-based nonprofits that were best positioned to respond. ...
“We’re going to go to work because we think of ourselves as first responders,” Cathy Moore, executive director of Epiphany Community Health Outreach Services (ECHOS) in Houston, which seeks to support what Moore calls “poverty-stricken, vulnerable families,” told me back in March of 2020. Nonprofits across the country responded to the challenges of 2020 with incredible creativity, flexibility and resilience. ...
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