The Strength and Resilience of Quad Cities (and all) Nonprofits in the Pandemic
By Guest Blogger, Kelly Thompson, Vice President of Grantmaking and Community Initiatives, Quad Cities Community Foundation
This October, you – my colleagues in the nonprofit sector, especially those in the Quad Cities – kindly took time to fill out a survey from Wastyn & Associates exploring the financial and operational impacts your organizations are experiencing these many months into the pandemic. With questions developed in partnership with Disaster Ready Quad Cities and Quad Cities Funders Forum, your answers were stark but not surprising.
Three-quarters of responding Quad Cities nonprofits are still operating at or above pre-pandemic capacity – providing the same or greater services as before. That’s good news and speaks to your determination to fulfill your missions. However, two-thirds of responding Quad Cities nonprofits have brought in less money than usual this year with decreases both in fundraising and in other sources of revenue, like earned income, contracts, or endowment income.
Most heartbreaking, because our sector accomplishes impact through our people, nearly 60% of responding Quad Cities nonprofits have reduced staff through furloughs, layoffs, or attrition. Of greatest concern to the nonprofit leaders I’ve talked to is the impact on your staff – especially the burnout that is happening now and the greater demand for services that will continue due to the lingering effects of economic and educational disruptions.
In short, you are doing more with less. Nonprofits have always done this, but that’s not how it should be. The nonprofit sector is a crucial part of our Quad Cities community and economy. Nonprofits make up 10% of our local workforce, in everything from arts to basic needs to education, health and beyond. Nonprofits provide critical support to all of our local workforce and residents, help make this a vibrant community with great quality of life, and as we saw this year, form a network of crisis response when disaster strikes. It’s dangerous for our community to risk losing that critical infrastructure. We don’t want nonprofits doing more with less – we want to support you to do your best work.
And you are doing great work. You continue to respond in an effective, innovative, and nimble manner, adjusting to provide your services and amenities to our community in a safe and responsive way. A few examples:
River Music Experience developed Curbside Concerts and Curbside Carols to continue to bring live music to audiences, even if it’s in their driveways. Many other arts organizations have also turned to alternative performance approaches, whether outdoors or virtual.
Humility Homes and Services, The Salvation Army of the Quad Cities, and other homelessness services providers shifted from congregate shelters to hotels, providing not only safety but dignity while demonstrating strong coordination and collaboration.
The River Bend Foodbank and its many partner food pantries have distributed far more meals than any previous year and also brought more fresh dairy and produce to Quad Citizens by taking advantage of the federal Farmers to Families program.
For each of these examples there are hundreds more ways that Quad Cities nonprofit organizations have showed up for us all this year, like you always do. Thank you.
That’s why it’s so important to look at this stark data in the context of the strength and value of the Quad Cities nonprofit sector. (As an aside, I use that term because it’s most familiar locally, but I hate describing our sector by what it’s not. We’re not organized with profit as our purpose, but that’s just a tax status. Is anyone trying to make “social sector” happen? How about “for-impact organizations”? Do you have something better to suggest?)
When sharing this data within my organization, in local collaborations, with fellow funders, in conversation with donors, or with the general public, I have been making sure to share these severe challenges along with the amazing strengths and crucial contributions of our nonprofit sector. I also share how important it is that our community supports your work with whatever resources we have: funding, volunteerism, and advocacy for larger-scale solutions, like inclusion of nonprofits in state or federal relief legislation; protection and expansion of social safety net programs to keep more people from falling into crisis; and, of course, public health measures to help bring our community cases back down while we wait for vaccines to become available.
How are you making meaning of these data? What message should I – what should we – be sending about the Quad Cities nonprofit sector right now, and in the months to come?
Kelly earned her master’s in social work from the University of Iowa and her Bachelor’s degree in Sociology from Augustana College. She brought to the Community Foundation nine years of experience in social services, including direct service in the areas of child welfare and homelessness; grant writing; and agency administration. As vice president of grantmaking and community initiatives, Kelly oversees grantmaking, scholarships, and the Community Foundation's collaborations with others on issues that no one organization can address alone. She also manages the Community Foundation’s youth philanthropy program, Teens for Tomorrow. Kelly lives in Rock Island, enjoys the local live music scene, and is active in community theatre.
