Nonprofits adapt to meet demands of the pandemic [Updated]
Editor’s note: This article was updated April 6, 2022, to correct the region a nonprofit served and add the name of an organization.
As COVID made it tougher for nonprofit organizations in southeastern Pennsylvania to do everything from serving clients to raising funds, the pandemic also made it clear just how much those charities were needed.
People whose lives were upended and finances hurt turned to nonprofits in higher numbers than ever, and in most cases received the help they sought.
And now two years after the pandemic started, and with COVID cases at their lowest totals since its beginning, there are still more people in need than before, with charitable groups still finding ways to assist them.
Olivet Boys & Girls Club of Reading & Berks County, for example, is providing more services than pre-pandemic, such as launching Hubs of Hope, an initiative to serve youth and families by connecting multiple local services, including clothing closets, mental health services and academic support.
That program was necessary as the pandemic created added academic challenges and mental health issues for students as evidenced by the increase in phone calls from parents seeking help, said Chris Winters, club president and CEO.
“We now have better relationships with the kids than ever,” he said.
What has allowed Olivet and other nonprofits to meet the higher demand is that they are working together, officials said.
Olivet got better at collaborating with community partners including Berks Community Action Progran, the Reading School District, the Reading Recreation Department, the Daniel Torres Hispanic Center and Safe Berks, Winters said.
“We have to keep doing it this way, working with each other and making sure we’re not competing,” he said. “Too many kids need help, and we can’t keep doing it by ourselves.”
Stronger together
The increased need for help with necessities like housing, food, mental health counseling and child care will continue as people rebound from losing jobs and income and adjust to the new normal of post-pandemic society, said United Way of Berks County President Tammy White.
For instance, the pandemic led to higher housing costs that prompted some local landlords to give tenants short notice that the home they’d been renting was now for sale, leaving them displaced, she said.
White spoke about United Way’s resource hotline, where those needing to connect with help can call 2-1-1 for guidance.
Since the pandemic began there have been almost 15,000 calls on the hotline in Berks, with almost half of the calls involving housing assistance and about 20% related to utility bills.
Most of those requests were met, White said, thanks largely to agencies working with one another.
“How everybody has come together is absolutely phenomenal,” she said. “COVID taught us that we are stronger when we work together. We already had a desire to collaborate, but the pandemic reinforced that and also showed how resilient we can be.”
Food solution
Helping Harvest food pantry works with more than 320 partners to distribute food in Berks and Schuylkill counties, and officials there also believe the increased need is long term.
Before the pandemic, Helping Harvest was distributing about 6.5 million pounds of food per year in Berks and Schuylkill, but in 2020 that almost doubled as it handed out 11 million pounds.
While that amount has dropped somewhat, the demand is still far above pre-pandemic levels as many have still not recovered financially from the pandemic, said President Jay Worrall.
Some had their savings decimated or got deeper into debt during the pandemic and turned to Helping Harvest for the first time, he said.
As those people continue to recover financially they still rely on the pantry, knowing that while help with other bills may not be available, at least their food insecurity has a solution, he said.
Helping Harvest has been able to feed them all thanks in part to the generosity of its donors, whose help it will continue to need going forward, he said.
Blood donors adjust
Another nonprofit that has experienced a long-term shift in its operations is Miller-Keystone Blood Center, which provides blood products to 28 hospitals in eastern Pennsylvania and western New Jersey, said President and CEO Peter J. Castagna Jr.
While Miller-Keystone formerly got about 70% of its blood donations from mobile drives at schools, colleges and workplaces, the pandemic made those events impossible for a time, and a shortage of employees increased the challenge, he said.
But now almost 70% of donations are being made at Miller-Keystone’s seven centers and satellite locations set up once per month, Castagna said.
Blood supplies had fallen to crisis levels locally in December and January as COVID cases rose and depleted the number of donors, leading to concerns hospital patients could die due to a lack of available blood.
The supplies are now in better shape, though, not only because fewer people have the virus but because many have adjusted to donating blood at the centers.
“People have responded,” Castagna said. “They’re coming to us.”
Personal contact returning
Fundraising has changed so much for nonprofits since before the pandemic when face-to-face fund drives and office presentations were a big source of contributions.
The switch to online pleas just wasn’t as effective, charity officers said, so the organizations are working to transition back.
With so many employees still working remotely, though, office solicitations have dwindled, meaning personal presentations are going to be crucial, Winters said.
“You can’t just rely on emails to solicit donations,” he said. “You need more personal contact, and more one-on-one meetings, which the pandemic didn’t allow. But now we’re getting back to sitting at tables and telling our stories.”
United Way officials in Berks said it’s been more difficult to secure donors since the pandemic began despite the organization’s efforts to use virtual meetings to promote payroll deduction pledges.
“People give to people, and nothing replaces in-person contact,” White said. “It’s harder to connect on a screen.”
Like a tsunami
Carrie Freeman, chief executive officer of United Way of Southern Chester County, said the biggest change was moving to virtual meetings for all of the nonprofit’s board and volunteer work.
“The camaraderie among volunteers working together for our common cause definitely suffered moving to the virtual meeting format,” Freeman said. “However, for convenience’s sake, we will probably retain the convenience of these virtual meetings.”
The most impacted people during the pandemic were the direct services group who are also the lowest paid, she said.
“They had to go out to work every day and didn’t have the luxury of working from home sitting at a computer,” she said. “They assumed the most risk and many lost jobs due to having to quarantine or stay home with children who had no child care available to them. Many of these folks who were just starting to restabilize have now been hit with inflationary pricing on basic goods. So the need is still out there.”
A Child’s Light, which has Chester County offices in Malvern and Unionville, helps vulnerable and abused children locally and around the world and started right before everything shut down, said founder Leslie Holt.
“A Child’s Light is about supporting kids in an ongoing, substantial way so that not only do they heal but our communities are healthier,” Holt said. “And we cannot do that without happy, healthy children.”
She said the need to help children is not merely greater since the pandemic began, but more like a tsunami.
“The isolation of the pandemic exacerbated every crack in court agencies and more importantly, every dysfunctional family household,” she said. “Thank heaven for our amazing and loyal contributors such as Blue Beards for Charity, The Demos Family Foundation and every friend, family member and community member who recognize how essential A Child’s Light is for abused children.”
Focus on community
Kennett Collaborative, a nonprofit that works to boost Kennett Square and its economy, decided that when tourism died down during the pandemic it would focus more on the people who live in the community and make Kennett a better home, said Bo Wright, executive director.
“Making Kennett a great place attracts visitors. We’ve seen this over the past few years as both residents and visitors alike have enjoyed our placemaking initiatives like the Light Up the Square tree lights and Kennett Blooms plantings and parklets,” he said.
“In addition to the Small Business Response Fund, which distributed over $270,000 in grants to 61 small consumer-facing businesses in the summer of 2020, helping to foster a sense of community to support local businesses has been a key part of our initiatives over the past few years,” he said. “These include everything from stories on local businesses and nonprofits in our weekly Around the Square newsletter to working on street closures for outdoor dining and providing safe and fun outdoor spaces for people to gather.”
He said the organization is looking forward to a full season of events that will bring people to Kennett Square now that people are more able to congregate.
Community support
Manna on Main Street is a Lansdale nonprofit with a reach across most of Montgomery County.
Sheldon Good, director of development and strategic direction, said the nonprofit helps 5,000 individuals each year.
Good said the nonprofit has been offering double the amount of food needed now prior to pre-pandemic times.
“We estimate that we assist about 5,000 individuals in the course of a year,” Good said.
The nonprofit helps people who are food insecure, including seniors.
He said more than 4,000 individuals live below the poverty line in the North Penn region, which includes 100,000 people, meaning those living in poverty represent 4% of the population.
“We serve low-income seniors who are on a fixed income, we serve working families, we serve persons experiencing homelessness. We serve anyone who is in need of our services,” Good said.
“We have learned that Manna has significant capacity and that our staff are resilient and we have an incredibly generous supportive community,” Good said. “We couldn’t do our work without the support of this community.”
Investing in nonprofits
Frances M. Sheehan is president of The Foundation for Delaware County on East State Street in Media, Delaware County.
The foundation worked recently to create an independent county-run health department while partnering with Delaware County Council, which the state approved in March.
“When there is an emergency,” Sheehan said, “if you do not have a strong public health structure, you can just see what can happen to the economy. You can see how dramatically it can impact people’s lives — and we are still not out of it.”
The foundation has distributed funds to regional nonprofits since 2020 to support the missions of the charities to help people in need. Also during the last two years, Citizen Corp of Delaware County organized a volunteer force of 3,000 which Frances praised as being unique to the area.
The nonprofit also focuses on services to help women in maternity.
The foundation funds fellow nonprofits to make a difference while also offering services on the ground. The nonprofit has 10,000 clients, including children, in Delaware County each year.
“By providing direct services we have front line staff that have a really good understanding of what the community needs and that really informs our grant writing philosophy,” Sheehan said. “Further, this is about investing in the nonprofits that are on the ground making a difference.”
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