How Miami’s nonprofits are battling COVID headwinds to raise money and serve community

When COVID-19 forced unexpected changes on our community, Feeding South Florida saw a 600 percent surge in phone calls from people asking for help. By the end of the 2020 fiscal year, it had distributed 119 million pounds of food, almost twice as much as the 61.5 million the year before.

At the Switchboard 2-1-1 Miami helpline, run by Jewish Community Services of South Florida, there was a 150 percent increase in calls, most of them pleading for food assistance. And at the United Way of Miami-Dade, executives saw several of their grantees either close shop permanently or lay off employees for lack of money as fundraising events were canceled.

Unfortunately, the seismic changes are far from over.

“It’s very difficult to plan because we don’t know how long this is going to last or how the economy will continue to react,” says Mary Donworth, senior vice president of community impact at the United Way of Miami-Dade. “This isn’t something we’ve seen before.”

Two surveys earlier in the year underscore the devastating impact the pandemic has had on the nonprofit sector at a time when many organizations have been asked to provide more services to needy families. More than half of the 374 nonprofits surveyed by Florida International University’s Jorge M. Perez Metropolitan Center reported drops in revenue. Forty percent had to add services or reconfigure the way they responded to increased need, usually by expanding food and mental health assistance.

Another survey, this one by Miami-Dade County’s cultural affairs department, revealed that a significant portion of local arts groups had furloughed or laid off employees. More than 5,370 arts and cultural jobs were lost, either permanently or temporarily, from a workforce of about 44,000. The report also found that closed facilities and canceled events had translated to a loss of $43 million by the end of May.

MIAMI FOUNDATION

When The Miami Foundation did its own outreach to determine impact and need, its findings echoed the troubling reality presented by the two surveys. Of the 500 respondents, 30 percent had laid off staff, 60 percent were expecting revenue loss and 50 percent were expecting decrease in donations. Among the hardest hit: the small but essential nonprofits that didn’t have the IT staff, equipment or money on hand to become a remote operation within hours.

“At the foundation we were really fortunate that we already had been doing tech upgrades to enable us to go remote in what turned out to be about 48 hours,” says Charisse Grant, senior vice president for programs and grants administration. “This wasn’t always possible for others.”

The result? Like the economic recovery, the effects of the coronavirus on the nonprofit sector have been uneven. Some organizations continued operations with barely a hitch. Some also were able to receive government aid through payroll protection payments. Those were the few and fortunate ones. But others were either ineligible for relief or simply didn’t have the contacts to apply quickly for the federal money.

KNIGHT FOUNDATION

Sam Gill, senior vice president and chief program officer for the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, noticed an especially deep disruption among arts/cultural groups. As a result, the foundation targeted extra aid to that area. It launched Knight New Work 2020 in hopes of encouraging artists to engage with audiences in new ways by funding up to $500,000 to support Miami-area artists reimagining how performing arts are created and experienced.

In the first round of funding up to 20 artists and arts organizations will receive $10,000 each to develop new performing art works. Winners will be provided with access to an advisory panel of established artists for mentorship and workshops will enable the sharing of projects with peers and advisors for feedback. A small group from this first round will receive more funding to actually produce and perform the work by the end of 2021.

Miami, however, presents a unique challenge moving forward. “It’s very dependent on cyclical industries such as hospitality and tourism, so there is a fear that if these industries don’t return this will affect donations, attendance and patronage,” Gill adds.

The Knight Foundation, like The Miami Foundation and other nonprofits with a solid endowment, have weathered the storm better than those that depend on galas and in-person events to raise money.

“We have an endowment and donor-advised funds so our survival is not dependent on year-to-year donations,” Grant explains. In fact, the foundation had to eventually hire a part-timer to handle the requests “because the amount of money we were moving was considerable.”

FEEDING SOUTH FLORIDA

Feeding South Florida also pumped up its staff to meet need, adding 30 additional employees, including drivers and warehouse workers. It helped offset, in part, the reduction in their regular volunteers, many of whom were older and thus more vulnerable to the virus.

Still, Sari Vatske, executive vice president of the organization, worries what will happen when emergency food aid through the U.S Department of Agriculture begins to dry up. ‘I think we’re going to see this heightened need for the next 18 to 24 months,” she says, “but we don’t know what kind of money will be there during that time and after.”

One of her concerns is what she calls “the sheer amount of need we haven’t seen before.” About 40 percent of those seeking food assistance now have never needed it before.

But even in stormy times, there’s a silver lining to the dark cloud. Donors — individual and corporate, large and small — have stepped up to the plate.

“I’ve seen people who say this is a tough, tough world, and so I need to do more,” says Glenn Kaufhold, a nonprofit consultant and co-chair of PhilanthropyMiami. “The people who have the possibilities are certainly donating.”

Longtime community leader David Lawrence Jr., who moderated a PhilanthropyMiami panel of four CEOs from local non-profits in early October, drew the same conclusion.

“Yes, it’s a terrible time, but people are stepping up.” he says. “We’ve seen this especially with organizations who have built relationships with donors who believe in the mission.”

Kauhold and Lawrence point to a renaissance of public-private partnership as well as intensified collaboration between fiscally healthy foundations and smaller nonprofits that have seen their revenue stream dry up. The Miami Foundation, for instance, collaborated with philanthropists and business and community leaders to launch The Community Recovery Fund, which has already distributed millions of dollars.

More recently, it teamed up with Miami-Dade County, through its Department of Public Housing and Community Development, to offer one-time grants to nonprofits impacted by COVID-19. The $10 million fund, made possible through the federal Coronavirus Relief Funds, is earmarked for organizations with 25 or fewer employees that have not received any type of government loan or grant. The money must be used for payroll, business interruption costs, reopening and other expenses related to COVID-19.

This summer Miami-Dade County also awarded $20 million in federal funds to United Way of Miami-Dade to distribute aid to the community. Early on United Way had already established its Miami Pandemic Response Fund, launched with $500,000 in seed money through a funders’ collaborative. Since then, it’s allocated more than $3.6 million.

Corporations and individuals also have dug into their pockets. In late September, City National Bank announced it was donating $1 million to a variety of local nonprofits to support response to the COVID-19 emergency. And the Miami Dade College Foundation raised a record-setting $2.7 million during its I AM MDC one-day fundraiser. It was the highest amount pledged since this fundraiser began five years ago.

Kaufhold, the consultant, says another positive outcome from the sudden chaos of COVID-19 has been “expedited change.” Nonprofits have adapted, pivoting to online fundraisers and remote workplaces. “The creativity coming out is amazing,” he adds. “Everyone is thinking of different ways to do what they need to do.”

JEWISH COMMUNITY SERVICES

That kind of creativity is demonstrated not only in fundraising but also in the way services are delivered. “We had to completely revisit the way we did things,” says Miriam Singer, president and chief executive offices of Jewish Community Services of South Florida “And we did it within a day’s notice.”

For example, JCS meals that were provided at comedores (communal lunchrooms) for needy seniors pre-COVID were individually boxed and delivered by masked and gloved workers “No hugs, but they got their meals,” she quipped.

Mental health services provided by JCS were moved to a secure online platform, ensuring that 90 percent of JCS clients would continue to get services. The agency also rented a warehouse, generously donated by a donor for a fee of $1 a year, to store more shelf-stable food.

“The level of collaboration has really ramped up,” Singer adds. “It’s unbelievable how much more agile our process has become.”

By no means are the nonprofits ready to declare victory. Leaders worry not only about extended need but also about the expected drop in tax collections by local and state governments, which would mean less funds available for services.

“We’re asking, what’s going to happen to the state budget?” Donworth of United Way says. “Needs are going up but the resources may not be.”

Yet nonprofit executives remain optimistic about the future, even as COVID-19 shows no sign of disappearing. “It’s a non-stop challenge, yes,” Singer says, “but people are responding. People want to help.”