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Oct 05

COVID-19 forces more than 40 percent of Central Indiana nonprofits to reconsider facility needs, and some to implement new delivery models, according to CA survey

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor, Not-for-Profit News

After more than seven months of operating under restrictions caused by COVID-19, most nonprofit organizations have made adjustments in programming and/or office operations,  with some permanently changing their service models with the aid of technology, according to an informal survey by Charitable Advisors.

For some, the new normal has revealed inadequacies in employees’ ability to deliver services from home. However, others noted some positive outcomes.

“Now we understand we can work successfully from home,” one survey respondent said. “The silver lining is that we all gained better technological skills. Plus, we adapted by recruiting, training, and working with volunteers all through virtual means — remarkable.” With that significant shift, the survey respondent said that the team plans to reduce its lease footprint in the future.

Another survey respondent questioned the need for a facility if social distancing continued to be a requirement for the foreseeable future. “Our current space is not set up for social distancing,” the respondent said. “Do we need a physical location at all?”

However, a significant number indicated that they will continue to need their facilities to deliver services.

Of 59 nonprofit representatives who responded to the survey, which was conducted in August 2020 …

  • more than 30% said that everyone was working from home;
  • nearly 38% said programs are being delivered virtually;
  • slightly more than 12% said programs have been suspended;
  • more than 44% continue to deliver in-person services;
  • more than 40% reported that they are now reconsidering their facility needs;
  • and more than 50% say they do not anticipate any change in facilities post-COVID.

Numerous organizations also reported that their team has become more innovative about facility usage in an effort to maintain social distancing as outlined under COVID-19 guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

For example, a survey respondent reported, employees at their nonprofit work as part of a staggered shift pattern to maintain social distancing in facility environments that do not allow for those regulations to be met at full capacity. “Everyone is working from home but they may come in on designated days to limit the number of people in the office,” the respondent said. Another said that their nonprofit is now open only two days a week instead of five days a week.

Also, a significant number of respondents said they are safely providing in-person services by implementing adaptations and restrictions. Some of the nonprofits that provide essential services, including medical care, haven’t stopped delivering services. However, they are operating under different guidelines.. “We are currently pre-screening patients by phone and scheduling appointments, instead of our walk-in hours,” a respondent said. “We may continue a hybrid version of this protocol in future months.”

Another respondent said their team adapted for social distancing but have no plans to change their use of their facilities in the future. “Our work really requires human interaction. Virtual is a poor substitute.”

Several respondents said the pandemic also initiated their thinking about creating a remote workforce. “We plan to shrink our office footprint, but that was planned for 2021 anyway; not directly because of the pandemic,” a survey respondent said. “In response to the pandemic, we would shrink now if we could without a lease penalty.”

Sep 21

Local Nonprofit Leaders View Social Justice Protests as Catalyst for Real Change

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor, Not-for-Profit News

This article is the first in a series of perspectives on how to achieve racial equity locally, nationally and globally. If you would like to submit your nonprofit’s racial justice initiative for possible publication in Not-for-Profit News, please contact Shari Finnell at shari@charitableadvisors.com.

“What’s next?” That’s the question on the agendas of many nonprofits in the wake of racial justice protests joined by as many as 26 million people throughout America in 2020. Here, the following five Central Indiana leaders give their perspectives on how to address that question as part of efforts to achieve real change in our nation’s renewed quest for racial equity.

  • Alan Bacon, senior director of Social Innovation for United Way of Central Indiana
  • Ebony Chappell, manager of program and communications, Leadership Indianapolis
  • Jill English, director of Child Advocates’ Interrupting Racism for Children
  • Una Osili, associate dean for research and international programs at Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy
  • Lindsey Rabinowitch, director of the Faith & Action Project for Christian Theological Seminary.

Alan Bacon, senior director of Social Innovation for United Way of Central Indiana

“We have a unique opportunity to do something about racial justice.”

With as many as 26 million people joining in Black Lives Matters protests nationwide in 2020, the United States could be poised for real change in achieving racial equity, according to Alan Bacon, senior director of social innovation for United Way of Central Indiana (UWCI).

“This is a large and significant moment for world history,” Bacon said. “We saw the entire world galvanize around the notion of racial equity. A lot of organizations are now asking, ‘What can we do to help?’.”

However, Bacon said, the moment could be lost unless there is an investment in the work required to eliminate systemic racism. “There’s a lot of work to be done to ensure that it’s not just a footnote to the history of 2020,” he said. “We have a unique opportunity to do something about racial justice.”

As organizations and individuals seek to increase awareness and implement policies to promote equity they must first step out of their comfort zones, Bacon said. “We need to challenge ourselves on our biases, and challenge ourselves to support each other,” he said. “There can be a great response when the community comes together.”

While the work will look different for every organization, Bacon said, there must be a challenge to seek innovative solutions — ones to replace those that haven’t worked in the past.

In his role at UWCI, Bacon supports organizations that are implementing new solutions for long-standing social challenges like multi-generational poverty. “Social innovation is about trying to find new innovative strategies, programs and initiatives to deploy in the community to help fight poverty and help residents experience upward mobility,” he said. We’re trying to figure out what are those new approaches to get a different result … social innovation that makes the most change and most impact.”

That approach also includes encouraging thought leadership, bringing groups together to talk about challenges and solutions, and accessing diverse thought in the community, “We look at innovation from a disruptive lens,” Bacon said. “We try to be as audacious as possible, understanding that, to move the needle, you must do things differently. At the same time, the initiative must be sustainable. There is a high-risk, high reward approach to dealing with innovation.”

Like an increasing number of organizations, the UWCI has invested in an alternative grant-making process for its new Social Innovation Fund. Bacon said it allows UWCI to make informed decisions when awarding grants to agencies that are bringing new ideas on how to address poverty.

“Organizations don’t have to be accredited with United Way to participate in the competitive-based process for funding,” Bacon said. “There’s not a large barrier of entry. If you have a 501c3 status, you can participate in the grantmaking for Social Innovation.” As a result, the pool of applicants for the first round of Social Innovation Fund grants had a good amount of diversity, Bacon said.

Of the 14 grants awarded in 2019, seven went to organizations led by people of color and six were awarded to organizations led by women, Bacon said. “We were able to achieve equity by being intentional on the front end,” he said. “We’re finding ways to implement equity in current processes and programming. We have done well in regard to grantmaking for Social Innovation.”

You Yes You! Project, which was among the first grant recipients of the Social Innovation Fund, demonstrates an innovative approach to targeting multi-generational poverty in Central Indiana, Bacon said. The nonprofit focuses on building healthy relationships between incarcerated fathers and their children through programming and education, a two-generation approach designed to break the cycle of poverty in the household.

Education is another critical area for organizations to address when implementing anti-racism policies and programs, Bacon said. It’s important to understand how racism has impacted housing development, food and transportation access, contributing to the issues that many people of color are now facing, he said.

“It’s important to move forward, but it’s also important to look back and understand the history of systemic racism,” Bacon said. “If not, we will eventually become complacent and not get anywhere. We need to inform with intent. This is not just a moment in American history. We need to ask, ‘How do we build a collection of moments to make real change within our country?”

Ebony Chappel, program and communications manager, Leadership Indianapolis

Ebony Chappel of Leadership Indianapolis, recalls watching broadcasts in disbelief as protests for racial equity erupted nationwide in the wake of the death of George Floyd in May. “Initially, I was very emotional by all the things I was seeing on television and right here in my home city,” Chappel said. “The onslaught was so sudden. I went to sleep and when I woke up, it seemed as if the world was on fire.” 

Yet, at the same time, Chappel said, the reality of systemic racism in America diminished some of her surprise. “The embers have been glowing for a long time,” Chappel said. “A deeper part of me wasn’t shocked. This was history taking its course … chicken coming home to roost.”

Referring to an analogy used by author Arundhati Roy to describe the 2020 pandemic, Chappel said mass protests can provide a portal for lasting change. 

“When he referred to the pandemic as a portal, that stuck out to me so much,” Chappel said. “We also can use this time as an opportunity to implement real change with racial equity … as a portal to a different way of being. However, that depends upon our collective ability to shift and do something different.

“If everyone is focused on retaining the status quo, I personally believe it will lead to our ruin,” she said. “If we collectively decide this society is not equitable because so many people are disenfranchised, I believe it will change our world for the better, a world full of possibilities.”

Local nonprofits that are already implementing innovative strategies can serve as models for other organizations seeking direction, Chappel said.

“CICF (Central Indiana Community Foundation) is a good example of an organization doing something differently and not maintaining the status quo,” she said. “It’s well known that it can be very difficult for smaller nonprofits to get grant funding. There’s a lot of bureaucracy and extensive application processes that put certain groups in need at a disadvantage.”

CICF eliminated those barriers to access by disseminating money based on needs, not primarily on an organization’s ability to excel with the grant application process, Chappel said. “Their focus is on redistributing wealth and power, bringing people to the table that hadn’t been there before. As a result, these smaller nonprofits now have a stake in how decisions are being made.”

Similarly Leadership Indianapolis has been shifting its focus to ensure that city leadership is more multicultural, more multigenerational and more collaborative, Chappel said.

As organizations explore ways to increase diversity among their boards and workforce, it’s important to avoid a cursory approach, Chappel added. “You can’t think, If I put a black person on my board, then automatically the problem is solved,” she said. “It takes intentional work, including a focus on choosing people who can advance the vision of the organization because of what they can bring to the table.”

It also is important to tap into the unique strengths of board members instead of expecting them to adjust to fit into the culture of the existing board,” she said. “A new board member should feel comfortable bringing themselves to the table without feeling a need to adjust to fit that mold.” For example, board members should be willing to explore more innovative technology, if younger board members prefer it as a mode of communication.

Lastly, organizations must understand that the work of diversity is not a one-person job, Chappel said. “It demands a collective effort. If you want to make sure your computers are running well, you don’t rely on one person,” she said. “If you want to make sure the building is clean, you don’t leave that responsibility to one single person. The business of diversity belongs to all of us.”

Jill English, director of Child Advocates’ Interrupting Racism for Children

Any work involving dismantling system racism must include a focus on children, as well as the acknowledgement that inequities impact everyone, according to Jill English, director of Child Advocates’ Interrupting Racism for Children (IRFC). 

As part of her role with Child Advocates, English contributes to the organization’s mission to illuminate how systemic racism has become institutionalized in America and how it is passed on from one generation to the next. IRFC hosts a two-day, interactive workshop where individuals and leaders can learn how to confront racism. “We need to address the question, ‘How do we interrupt racism for our children since we haven’t been able to do it for one another?’,” English said.

When implementing policies to address systemic racism, organizations should engage in deep reflection and examination without an environment of shame, English said. 

“We all need to acknowledge that it is embedded in our society. Oftentimes, this work has involved calling people out, shaming them, telling them what they do wrong, what they don’t get, or what they don’t know,” English said. “We need to come from a place of caring. I care more about children than being right. We focus on moving one another to a place where we can actually start interrupting racism and putting the tools we learn in the workshop into effect so we can change the trajectory of where we are today.”

English also said that the IRFC workshop is designed to help attendees understand the scope of racism’s impact on all demographics.

As an example, Child Advocates came to the realization that white children were also at a disadvantage because of racial biases. “If 70 percent of the child population in Marion County is white, for example, and only 46 percent of the children in Child Protective Services are white on any given day, where are all the white children who are being abused and neglected?” English asked. 

“We need to see that we are allowing white children to get hurt or leaving them in dangerous situations for no other reason than that we don’t see it,” she added. “Just as we see abuse and neglect for the same situation in an African-American family, the same thing happens to a white child but we don’t see it because of our implicit biases. ‘White’ hides a lot of things. At the same time, too many African-American children are being removed from their homes. How do we help them?”

“We need to connect to an understanding that racism hurts everyone,” she said. “When it gets better for one population, it gets better for all when it’s done from an equitable lens.”

English said when organizations approach her about how to develop a strategic plan, she often encourages them to reflect on their own goals and mission. “The work of racial equity isn’t meant to be a check in a box … just for you to say it’s something you’ve done. It must be part of a journey,” she said.

She likened it to setting goals for a healthier lifestyle. “You don’t go to a gym, check it off a box and then 10 years later say I’m still working on my health,” English said. “In the same way, you can’t go to a cultural competency workshop and then expect to be done. It is an intentional daily practice similar to health. If you want to be healthy when it comes to racism, you have to figure out your organization’s goal and commit to it daily.”

English also said organizations may need to seek external help to hold them accountable in the work of diversity. “It’s hard to have a DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) within an organization and give them the responsibility to hold their colleagues accountable,” she said.

Ultimately, as part of its mission, Child Advocates is intent on creating a community that allows children to reach their full potential; in an environment where their outcomes are not based on their race, English said. “We want to create a world where that’s no longer on the table.”

Una Osili, associate dean for research and international programs at Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy

The diversity among the millions of people who joined more than 10,600 protests this summer gave Una Osili and her family reason to hope that efforts to eradicate racism in America would be more successful — this time around.

“I’m optimistic,” said Osili, associate dean for research and international programs at Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy. “One of the reasons this moment is so different is that it involves such a broad-based group of individuals and organizations. What we saw with these protests and calls for racial justice didn’t involve just one racial group. A lot of different communities were represented as part of a grassroots effort.”

Her parents, who were college students during the social injustice protests of the 1960s, also expressed optimism about the mass demonstrations in 2020. “When they looked at footage around the country and around the world, they noticed that the crowds were so diverse,” said Osili, whose parents currently live in Nigeria. “It was inspiring. The call to action was not just coming from black and brown people. It was coming from people of all races and of all ages.”

Osili said intentional collaboration on a large scale, building upon the progress already made by nonprofit organizations immersed in social justice work, is the next step to real change.

“There was a lot of energy and vision that came from our young people,” Osili said. “It’s up to us to deepen the conversations. The questions now are, ‘How do you sustain and build on that progress for it to be a lasting movement?’ ‘What are our values? What do we stand for?’ All of us own a piece of that to a large extent.”

With such a large opportunity for change, Osili added, all sectors must come together to collaborate — government, education, nonprofit and businesses. “If you think about the scale of the work, no one organization can solve this on its own,” she said. “Collaboration is key, yet we haven’t done so well with that in the past.”

Osili said there have been recent developments in more collaborative approaches, citing the Central Indiana Racial Equity Fund as an example. The fund, a collaboration among Eli Lilly and Company Foundation, Lumina Foundation and Central Indiana Community Foundation, was established to address racial inequities in the criminal justice system. It also received contributions from Anthem Foundation, Buckingham Foundation, Dorsey Foundation, Rick Fuson and Karen Ferguson Fuson, Marianne Glick and Mike Woods, Glick Philanthropies, Herbert Simon Family Foundation, High Alpha, The Indianapolis Foundation, Indianapolis Power & Light Company, Lilly Endowment Inc., and Pacers Foundation.

“When organizations join forces, there can be tremendous gain and benefit,” said Osili, noting that nonprofits, including colleges and universities, can play a critical leadership role because of their previous experience and knowledge base. 

While collaboration is critical, internal work also must be at the forefront of racial equity efforts, Osili said. Organizations can start by conducting an analysis of hiring practices, processes, assets, board composition and endowments from the perspective of inclusion and diversity, she said. 

For example, research from the IU Lilly Family School of Philanthropy shows that   nonprofit boards are less diverse than those of government and corporate boards, Osili said. “Nonprofits are doing well on the gender side; there’s good representation in terms of addressing gender in leadership,” she said. “When you start looking at race and ethnicity, including in areas you would expect more representation like the arts, environment and international, you don’t see good representation.”

Some organizations are addressing minority board representation in several innovative ways, Osili said. Board Connector, an organization based in Chattanooga, Tenn., has developed an app to help nonprofits reach their goals for diversity. 

The Indianapolis Urban League, along with other Urban League chapters, sponsors a young leaders group that can be tapped for board membership, Osili said. “They’re ready to serve and are very knowledgeable,” she added. “Many organizations tend to go to the same people to join their boards. They’re inundated with requests.”

“At the same time, we also need to prepare young emerging leaders so they’re ready to serve,” Osili said. “It’s the responsibility of both the organization and the larger nonprofit infrastructure to provide readiness, to equip them with the tools to be successful.”

Lindsey Rabinowitch, director of the Faith & Action Project for Christian Theological Seminary (CTS)

As an increasing number of organizations lean in to address social justice and inequities, increasing awareness must be at the foundation of their efforts, said Lindsey Rabinowitch, director of the Faith & Action Project for Christian Theological Seminary (CTS).

“Part of the work involved in undoing racism is to make sure we are reading, studying and being aware of all the ways we have privilege, including systemic policies that often hold back minorities,” said Rabinowitch, who regularly reads to stay informed. 

Organizations, whether congregations, businesses or nonprofits, also need to identify their niche as part of the larger work involved in eradicating racial inequities, she said. “Some of the questions can include, ‘How can we make sure everyone has access to quality education?’ ‘What is the situation of our community?” 

While goals may be more clearly identifiable for businesses, such as addressing diversity hiring plans, nonprofits can commit to advocating for equity in numerous areas — from early and convenient voting to education and training for incarcerated populations, affordable childcare and accessible transportation, Rabinowitch said.

Among the critical areas CTS has sought to address through the Faith & Action Project is the disproportionate rate of poverty among Indianapolis residents, including children, when compared with the rest of the nation. According to recent statistics compiled by The Polis Center at IUPUI, one of five people in Central Indiana live under the poverty level. Minorities are among those most negatively impacted, 

Rabinowitch noted.

“CTS always has been a very progressive organization with a mission of shaping individuals for leadership in efforts to mitigate poverty, and ensure equal opportunities and treatment for all people,” Rabinowitch said. “We believe all people deserve affordable quality housing, affordable health care and balanced nutrition that’s accessible. We help families move out of poverty and stand on their own. We want people to have a sense of belonging and the ability to experience upward mobility.”

Rabinowitch also advised organizations to shape their conversations by being more inclusive. “We need to change this narrative on poverty — it’s not ‘us’ vs. ‘them,’” she said. “We need to make sure we see each other. We belong to one another.”

Sep 08

Local Nonprofits and Businesses Reap the Benefits of Committed Partnerships

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor, Not-for-Profit News

Even in the best of times, nonprofits can find it challenging to boost visibility, gain more donors and raise funds. Success often demands a complex mix of strategies, including annual fundraisers, email campaigns, and social media marketing, executed over an extended period of time.

Partnerships with businesses are proving to be a critical component in filling those gaps, according to several local nonprofits. These partnerships appear to be evolving in recent years, as businesses explore more ways to support nonprofits beyond matching gifts, sponsorships and annual fundraising campaigns.

Williams Comfort Air, a business that specializes in HVAC and plumbing, not only contributes to nonprofits with matching gift campaigns; it invests in marketing campaigns on their behalf. As part of its partnership with Outreach, Inc., which serves homeless youth, Williams Comfort Air hired professional production crews to develop radio spots and video productions and promoted the nonprofit’s story to larger audiences. 

First Person Advisors, a benefits and compensation advisory firm, recently established a foundation in partnership with Central Indiana Community Foundation (CICF) and Selflessly. The foundation will be funded through one percent of the company’s annual revenues, as well as matching of individual employee’s gifts of up to $1,000 a year each.

In keeping with a volunteerism tradition started in 2014, OneAmerica, this week, launched its Week of Caring at a time when volunteerism is significantly down due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While the volunteer efforts may look different due to social distancing requirements, OneAmerica associates are finding creative ways to donate their time, including hosting storytelling sessions for underprivileged youth and assisting with letter writing campaigns. 

The virtual format of Week of Caring also allowed associates to reach an unprecedented number of nonprofits.

“This is as hands-on as it can safely be, with associates creatively using the resources we have and maximizing technology, talent and teamwork,” said Jennifer Pittman, vice president, enterprise communications and community affairs at OneAmerica. “Nonprofit organizations need our help now more than ever, and while giving back may look different in 2020, we remain committed to our community volunteerism.” 

Business partnerships that extend beyond annual donations can have a significant impact, according to several local nonprofits.

“A lot of times businesses underestimate their influence,” said Jason Chenowith, CEO of Outreach, one of the nonprofits William Comfort Air has supported annually. “Helping us get in front of people who don’t know us is equally important as the donations we receive. As a nonprofit, you always need to get your name in front of new people. It’s an endless cycle as you try to get people exposed to what you do.”

The campaigns sponsored by Williams Comfort Air continue to open doors — long after they were first launched, Chenowith said. 

“There are times when I will introduce myself to people and they already know the name of Outreach. You can’t quantify the value and benefit of that,” he said. “We are very, very grateful for major donors but that’s not what keeps us alive. It’s an army of people who give $25 or $50 on a regular basis. When a business leverages its social power, it can make a big difference. It allows us to build relationships among individuals.”

Heather Parker, director of development communication for The Julian Center, another nonprofit supported by Williams Comfort Air, said a committed business sponsorship is critical for numerous reasons. 

“When employers are willing to reach out to their employees on their own behalf it exposes us to donors we normally wouldn’t have,” Parker said. “Secondly, nonprofits are able to tap into sizable amounts of money that are unrestricted. It gives the agency more flexibility to cover things they might not have otherwise. That’s a great benefit.”

Matt Tyner, director of marketing for Williams Comfort Air, said that the company seeks to get a better understanding of a charity because they want to share how donations are making an impact. 

“We want to see them come to life,” he said. “A lot of companies are hesitant to promote their community giving, thinking it may come across as not being humble. It should be considered an opportunity to engage their donor bases. As a result of hearing those stories, some donors decide to become annual givers.”

After listening to the charities they serve, Williams Comfort Air also launched summer giving campaigns to offset revenue shortfalls during a slow fundraising period for many organizations. “There’s a lot of giving at the end of the year and at the beginning of the year,” Tyner said. “That’s why we put a significant amount of our giving into the summer months. We want to be a bit of a bridge during the periods where there’s less giving.”

When the pandemic hit, the financial support from Williams Comfort Air helped nonprofits continue to serve their communities at a critical time, he said.

Taking more creative approaches to business-nonprofit partnerships not only benefit nonprofit agencies, said Mark Minner, president and chief strategy officer for First Person Advisors. Developing avenues for employees to support nonprofits can impact morale and foster a sense of fulfillment as part of their employment with a company.. 

“From our experience, that’s just how people are wired. Giving back is really important in their lives and they expect their employer to have that same type of commitment.” Minner said. “As an employer, we have a unique opportunity and role to facilitate opportunities to make their dollars go further faster … to make more of an impact,”

First Person Advisors had already committed to developing a foundation before the global pandemic reached Indianapolis. Working in partnership with CICF and Selflessly, the advisory firm decided to accelerate the launch of the foundation as needs in the community grow.

Minner said other businesses interested in developing a deeper commitment to nonprofits can start with matching programs, if they don’t already have one in place. Establishing a foundation can take significantly more effort, but the impact is so much greater than the time to set it up, he said.

“It really has a significant return in terms of the level of connectivity people feel to the organization,” Minner said. “We can help employees make a difference. It’s great to hear stories from our employees about how appreciative they are to be able to help people.”

Aug 24

State of Indiana’s Nonprofits: Survey Reveals How Organizations Are Coping in 2020

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor, Charitable Advisors

Nearly six months have passed since the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Indiana. Since that time, the majority of the state’s nonprofits have faced significant challenges in maintaining services to support their missions, according to Indiana Nonprofits and COVID-19: Impact on Services, Finances and Staffing, a new report released by the Indiana United Ways and the Indiana Nonprofit Sector Project.

Of the 512 nonprofit organizations responding to a survey, 71 percent reported major revenue shortfalls since March 1 due to the pandemic; 60  percent reported suspending or ending programs; 67 percent cancelled a fundraising event; and 23 percent had laid off or furloughed staff. While the percentage of nonprofits reporting staff layoffs and furloughs was relatively low compared to other metrics, 43 percent reported greater demands on existing staff because of an absence of volunteers.

Report co-author Kirsten Grønbjerg, director of the Indiana Nonprofit Sector Project, Distinguished Professor at O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University Bloomington, said the results were surprising because of the extent of the impact across a significant number of nonprofits. “I don’t think we have ever seen this kind of widespread impact before,” Grønbjerg said. “It’s drastic and intense.”

With previous economic downturns, Grønbjerg said, a portion of nonprofit organizations may  have been impacted because of declining revenue. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has left few nonprofits spared, except those that provide essential services.

“Our findings point to an increased need for services that the pandemic itself created. I think the safety net nonprofits play for the community took a beating. How well they’re going to recover is the big question,” she said. “The CARES Act has been an important component in allowing them to continue to operate.” About half of the nonprofit organizations surveyed received loans under the Payroll Protection Plan under the CARES Act.

Kathryn Habecker, co-author of the report and impact and advocacy manager at Indiana United Ways, said that a significant number of Hoosiers were struggling even before the pandemic hit. New data on Indiana ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) families show that “more than one-third of Indiana households faced significant economic hardship well before the pandemic hit. Many already were just a paycheck, car repair, or medical bill away from disaster,” she said. “Unfortunately, many more have joined their ranks over the last three months.”

While the report detailed the extensive impact COVID-19 has had on nonprofits, it also revealed how organizations are implementing creative strategies as a way to continue to support the growing needs of residents impacted by the pandemic, Grønbjerg said.

Statewide, collaborations have been developed among nonprofits, United Way, foundations, local and state government officials, schools, chambers of commerce, hospitals, universities and major employers to determine how to best meet of the community, said Grønbjerg, citing a COVID-19 coalition that meets twice a week in Bloomington.

In the coming months, Grønbjerg said, these types of collaborations will become more essential since nonprofits play such a critical role in the community, especially during a time when eviction and utility shutoff moratoriums have started to expire.  

“We view these developments as silver linings on otherwise very dark clouds. If nurtured and sustained over time, these collaborative efforts may provide the basis for stronger communities with better safety nets going forward,” Grønbjerg said.

Aug 17

NFPN Perspectives: 20 Years of Supporting Central Indiana’s Nonprofit Community

By Feature, Uncategorized

By Shari Finnell, writer/editor Charitable Advisors

When Bryan Orander launched Not-for-Profit News in 2001, the internet had not yet reached its saturation point; only 52 percent of American adults reported using it at the time, according to the Pew Research Center. And Orander considered the e-newsletter as nothing more than a project to keep him busy while starting his consulting business, perhaps a tool that would help a few people find jobs, he recently said.

As NFPN celebrates its 20th anniversary year as an online weekly publication with more than 14,000 subscribers, Orander reflected on how the nonprofit sector of Central Indiana has navigated various changes during that period, including internet saturation, the economic recession of 2008, technology advances, evolving giving patterns, and, currently, the impact of a global pandemic and unprecedented racial equity protests.

Orander, founder and President of Charitable Advisors, a consulting firm, said no other period in the past 20 years fully matches the challenges faced by nonprofits today, but there were similarities during the economic downturn of 2008.

“From our vantage point — from 2008 to 2010, we saw job ads drop off, donations being directed to basic needs and away from the arts and the environment,” he said. “We’re now seeing a lot of the same things. Right now, at least, COVID-19 relief funds are being directed to human services and basic needs. That makes sense.”

Studies reveal that many nonprofits weathered the 2008 recession fairly well, Orander said, which gives him reason to hope that many of them will survive the current turbulent period. Here are some of Orander’s perspectives on the trends that continue to shape the nonprofit sector in Central Indiana.

Increasing dominance of the larger nonprofit: Orander said some of the same patterns that have dominated the B2B sector, including the decline of small businesses, seem to be playing out in the nonprofit sector.

“Looking at the bigger picture over the past 20 years, it appears that the nonprofit sector has evolved with more clearly defined, substantial nonprofits. It’s almost a case of the-haves and the have-nots,” he said. “The organizations that are able to hire the best people, invest in advanced technology and implement the best techniques are getting better and better at raising money and attracting donors. Meanwhile, a lot of other nonprofits are being left behind. And that gap is getting bigger.”

Changing profile of donors: Citing a 2019 report published by the Indiana University Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI, Orander noted that the number of people donating has decreased from two-thirds of U.S. households in 2000 to slightly over half in 2016. “While overall charitable donations continue to slowly increase, the number of people donating is decreasing. We have a donating class and the rest,” he said. “People with less means are giving less, while people of means are taking over a bigger share of the giving.”

While overall giving hasn’t declined, Orander said, nonprofits need to be more strategic about how to target wealthier donors. “You have to be sophisticated at soliciting donations, and that seems to leave smaller nonprofits in a tough position because most have not developed major donors.”

Models of charitable giving are evolving: During the past 20 years, Orander also has noticed changes in the giving model — with some donors moving from a focus on organizations that align with their values to a model that generally focuses on a donor’s loyalty to a cause. “There are continuing studies on this, but it appears that charity and cause in terms of giving are viewed differently among different generations,” Orander said.

For example, he said, younger people are more likely to be loyal to a cause, such as environmental concerns, while older people tend to support nonprofit organizations that align with their passions and beliefs. Since younger generations may be more passionate about a specific cause, they may decide to give through an engaging online campaign or work for a for-profit employer that is dedicated to their cause.

Crowdfunding also has changed the charitable giving model, Orander said. “There are so many ways that people can give online; there’s now a fuzziness between charity and giving. A lot of people don’t discern the difference between giving to a food bank or to a worthy person through an on-line crowdfunding platform.”

Businesses competing with nonprofits for new hires: As a professional recruiter, Orander also has some perspectives about how hiring trends are impacting nonprofits’ ability to compete for talent.

“A positive trend is that the younger generation wants to be involved in a worthy cause. They want to make a difference, so they would traditionally be more likely attracted to nonprofits,” Orander said. “However, for-profit businesses have realized that their prospective employees want to be part of a making a difference, so they often affiliate themselves with a cause.”

Socially responsible companies have become so mainstream, that “the lines are kind of blurry between working at a nonprofit with a cause or a for-profit that has a cause,” Orander said. “Employees may determine that, either way, it’s possible for you to make a positive difference. But with some employers, you can make more money and still make a difference.”

Impact of starting a new nonprofit: While it’s not impossible, it is much more difficult to start a nonprofit with real impact than it was 20 years — even without the challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Orander said. “It may not be difficult to create one, but it’s harder and harder to rally the people and the resources to do anything with it,” he said. Many new nonprofits are created in response to a personal or family tragedy or loss and not because the community doesn’t already offer those services, Orander has observed.

The Future: As Orander looks forward to continuing NFPN’s role in the Central Indiana nonprofit sector, he foresees developing more opportunities to connect people, organizations and resources, with a focus on informing and inspiring through the news and stories it delivers.

“When we first surpassed 10,000 subscribers, I knew we were really helping to connect and inform people in the local nonprofit community. We had become the go-to place for jobs and news,” Orander said. “It felt like we were making a difference. I feel the same way now. It’s been an interesting and humbling experience.”

Aug 10

COVID-19 leads to unprecedented response in support of Indiana’s most vulnerable

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, Editor, Charitable Advisors

Nonprofit organizations on the frontlines of supporting immigrants, refugees and other foreign-born residents have been regularly encountering challenges to ensure critical, sometimes life-saving, information is adequately relayed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to language barriers, these individuals are more likely to be employed in jobs that put them at higher risk for infection, are denied unemployment benefits, lack health insurance, and have fears about accessing medical care and resources — all factors that jeopardize their ability to navigate the pandemic, according to several local nonprofit organizations.

“Those of us who are fluent in English are struggling everyday to understand COVID-19,” said Dana Harrison, interim executive director of the Immigrant Welcome Center. “‘What did the governor say? What is going on with schools?’ It’s changing daily.” For foreign-born newcomers, those COVID-19 directives — from stay-at-home orders to how to protect themselves from the virus — can be extremely difficult to understand, Harrison said.

Rethinking the ceiling for grantmaking in a time of crisis

During the past 18 years, board members of The Clowes Fund have been invested in understanding the challenges facing immigrants and refugees as they shifted their focus to supporting those populations and workforce development initiatives.

When the pandemic hit the U.S., a subcommittee of Fund board members and staff immediately gathered to determine how it could best meet needs in the community. Realizing they didn’t have the resources of larger foundations, The Fund was intent on making a significant impact through a more concentrated effort.

“We used to be one of the largest foundations in Indianapolis,” said Elizabeth A. Casselman, executive director of The Clowes Fund, Inc. “That’s no longer the case. We work hard to find our lane. We were looking to find the gaps and then identifying the organizations that were working to fill those gaps.” The result was a plan to distribute unsolicited funds to current grantees, allow for more flexibility with an unrestricted grant format, and focus on program areas with the highest needs, including immigrant services and workforce development.

Just a few weeks later, the Fund awarded 21 small emergency grants totaling $220,000 to numerous organizations, including Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, the Undocumented Hoosiers Fund of the Indiana Undocumented Youth Alliance, administered by Broadway United Methodist Church, and other organizations that serve populations who may not be eligible for other types of relief funding.

The unexpected grants came as a welcome surprise for many of the organizations that received them — giving them the support to continue their mission in the midst of an uncertain and turbulent period.

However, the extent of the damage caused by the pandemic weighed heavily on the board members, who started questioning if they had done enough, Casselman said. “There was a strong sentiment among Clowes family members and non-family members that it does no good to sit on these assets when there’s such a great need. We were worried we would look back and say we took too safe of a position.”

They were already familiar with the math that guided decisions throughout the foundation’s 68-year history — across four generations of the Clowes family. “With a foundation, the only legal requirement is that we must distribute at least 5 percent each year,” said Casselman, referring to the value of net investment assets. “Yet, all too often it begins to be interpreted as the ceiling rather than the floor.”

From a strictly financial standpoint, a conservative approach — the 5 percent floor/ceiling — also would have been the most responsible decision for ensuring that the foundation exists into perpetuity, continuing to support the intent of the founders’ mission, Casselman said.

“If you have several years of 6 to 7 percent, you can pretty quickly erode your funds,” Casselman added. “We realized those policies served us well in the long run. But these are exceptional times. And exceptional times demand an exception response.”

As a result of that strong sentiment among the board, including family and non-family members, the Fund doubled its grantmaking commitment by spending an additional 5 percent more than its typical grantmaking through a $3.2 million draw from the corpus of its endowment in 2020. Through The Clowes Fund COVID-19 Plan, the board approved spending an additional $2 million in grantmaking for 2020 and reserved $1.2 million to supplement grantmaking in 2021.

“Failure to respond in an exceptional manner would likely cause the Fund board and staff to look back with regret,” said Edith Bowles, Clowes Fund vice president. Bowles said they believed it is possible to make an unprecedented decision without damaging the long-term fiscal health of the foundation.

Meeting needs in challenging times

As with its previous response, the Fund quickly distributed unsolicited and unrestricted grants in July — in amounts ranging from $50,000 to Exodus Refugee Immigration, Inc., to $150,000 to Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) for a comprehensive set of loans for minority-owned businesses. Median grant size was $40,000, significantly higher than Clowes Fund grants awarded in previous years.

Harrison of the Immigrant Welcome Center, as well as those of other organizations supporting the immigrant, foreign-born and refugee population of Indiana, were immediately met with challenges in the midst of the pandemic. “The challenges were always there … language barriers, higher risks of infection, an inability to qualify for government resources, lack of health insurance,” Harrison said. “They intensified with the pandemic.”

Every day, the Center intervenes on behalf of immigrants, ensuring that they’re getting access to food pantries, and unemployment benefits, rental assistance and healthcare they’re entitled to but are afraid to access.

Language barriers are especially problematic in a state with inadequate language translation options.

“When the government first issued stay at home orders, some families would not open their front doors or leave their homes, endangering their lives because they were critically low on food,” Harrison said. “In their world, when the government says stay at home, they stay at home.”

Immigration status concerns also instill fear among individuals who are undocumented, Harrison said. With the public charge rule, there is also widespread concern that applying for social benefits could jeopardize any chance of being granted legal permanent resident status, Harrison pointed out. “It’s been very successful in putting absolute terror in our immigrant population,” she said.

The Clowes Fund grant, along with other grants from other foundations, came at a critical time, Harrison said.

“The size of the grant we received from the Clowes Fund gave us some critical breathing room — the freedom to keep on some temporary staff members on a more permanent basis. We did not have to operate in financial fear,” Harrison said. “We were absolutely stunned. It helped transform our year.

“If we had not received that money there would have been the prospect of very hard decisions on the horizon, including reducing positions to part time,” she added.

Cole Varga, executive director of Exodus Refugee Immigration, Inc., said the organization has been focused on meeting the needs of refugees who have been displaced from nations like Syria, Burma, and Yemen under troubling circumstances made even more challenging because of the pandemic. In addition to helping refugees get settled in apartments, schools and jobs, the organization regularly helps them understand basic living skills, such as writing a check, purchasing groceries and accessing health care and social services.

As the impact of COVID-19 intensified, the Exodus team ramped up their efforts to assist refugees in applying for unemployment, and rental and utility assistance. Those efforts were complicated because of language barriers, said Varga, noting that Exodus provided interpretation. “Different government agencies are a bit behind with equality in terms of language access,” he said.

“Unemployment in Indiana has a massive backlog, making it even more difficult to navigate if you don’t speak English,” Varga added. “Some of them didn’t even have WiFi. It would have been impossible if we had not helped them out.”

Because of the added complications of applying for benefits as a non-English speaking resident, unemployment benefits sometimes didn’t arrive for more than two months. As a result, some families were unable to buy food or pay rent and utilities during that time, Varga said.

Grants have helped refugees face difficult circumstances, especially during the period in which Congress has debated on how to move forward with unemployment benefits, Varga said. “The Clowes Fund helped remove those barriers.” he said. “When a single mom lost her job at a restaurant, we were able to stand in and help fill in the gap.”

As part of its mission, La Plaza, Inc., another Clowes Fund grant recipient, provides one-on-one counseling to Hispanic high students to improve their chances of graduating from high school and college. The team also provides support to the families of the students, ensuring that they receive healthcare, utility and rent assistance, and other resources.

The pandemic complicated the ability to deliver those services because most of the engagement had been in person, said Miriam Acevedo Davis, president and CEO of La Plaza, Inc.. Also, La Plaza was sensitive to the increased need for mental health counseling as well as helping families understand the signs of anxiety and depression.

“It was an enormously scary time,” Acevedo Davis recalled of the first several months of the pandemic. “We were serving an area that had been identified as a hotspot, based on a lot of the information we had.”

La Plaza team members initially worked from home, ensuring that the families they served were adequately protected with PPE, medical services, food, childcare and other resources. Additionally, they were sorting out the complications of working with some students who were trying to study from home without WiFi or had the responsibility of caring for younger siblings.

Acevedo Davis described the Clowes Fund grant as extraordinary for several reasons. Not only was the grant unsolicited, it was issued quickly and without restrictions.

Acevedo Davis said those factors were critical. “We did not have to worry about writing a report about what we’re going to do and anticipated outcomes, or spending a lot of time tracking it,” she said. While La Plaza has processes in place for reporting and tracking, additional restrictions would have been difficult to complete at a time when employees were working from home and working hard to meet the needs of the community they served, Acevedo Davis said. 

“They (Clowes Fund) told us, ‘We want to get the money to you quickly. We know you’ll do a good job supporting the most vulnerable,’” Acevedo Davis said. “With those restrictions gone, we could move quickly so that students and their families could get the critical help they needed during a difficult time.”

Acevedo Davis said The Clowes Fund, along with other local funding sources, have provided critical support during an incredibly challenging time for nonprofits and the communities they serve.

“We are in awe of how quickly our funding community moved to provide funds to organizations,” she said.

The Clowes Fund COVID-19 Relief Grants recipients included: Broadway United Methodist Church (Undocumented Hoosier Support Fund); Exodus Refugee Immigration, Inc.; Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana, Inc.; La Plaza, Inc.; Local Initiatives Support Corporation; Mary Rigg Neighborhood Center, Inc.; Second Helpings, Inc.; Shepherd Community Center, Inc.; The Immigrant Welcome Center, Inc; and RecycleForce. Other awards were granted to organizations in New England states, including Massachusetts, Maine and New Hampshire and New York, and other regions.

Jul 28

Local nonprofits implement different strategies for annual fundraisers in wake of COVID-19

By Feature

by Shari L. Finnell, editor/writer, Charitable Advisors

For School on Wheels, an Indianapolis nonprofit that provides tutoring for children facing homelessness, the potential loss of funds from its annual fundraiser in 2020 would have been devastating — a significant blow to its ability to carry out its mission in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Education Celebration generates 25 percent of School on Wheel’s annual budget, according to Amber Ewing Kostoff, CFRE, vice president of development. In 2019, it brought in more than $270,000 from sponsorships, live and silent auctions, ticket sales and a matching gift opportunity for about 400 attendees.

“It’s a big deal for us,” Ewing Kostoff said.

When Indiana started reporting its first cases of COVID19, School on Wheels event organizers immediately started considering alternative options for their 2020 Education Celebration. It was originally slated for April, just weeks after Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb started issuing statewide restrictions, including a shelter in place order, effective March 25.

“When all the news about the pandemic and the restrictions coming to fruition, we didn’t feel comfortable about having an event with more than 400 people in a room,” Ewing Kostoff said. At the time, we weren’t sure how things were going to look like going forward.”

As with hundreds of other nonprofits in Indiana, School on Wheels had invested a significant amount of time and resources into event planning because of multiple benefits. A successful fundraiser not only provides an avenue for generating funds, it gives nonprofits the opportunity to meet donors and volunteers face to face, showcase the mission, and recognize sponsors, volunteers and supporters.

While inclement weather always has posed a threat to plans for galas, 5Ks, parties and other event fundraisers in Indiana, COVID-19 has had an unprecedented impact — disrupting plans for nonprofit organizations of all sizes throughout the year.

Zoobilation, one of the most widely anticipated black-tie fundraising events in Indiana, was canceled for the first time in its 34-year history. Organizers originally had postponed the date, moving it from June 12 to August 14, in the hopes that it could be hosted in a safer environment for its 5,000 guests by that time. The fundraiser supports general operating expenses for the Indianapolis Zoo.

With COVID19 undergoing a resurgence, Zoobilation organizers last week announced its decision to cancel the event. “It was painful to cancel it but not difficult considering what was in the best interests of our guests and partners,” said Julie McDearmon, CFRE, director of Institutional Advancement at the Indianapolis Zoological Society.

Organizers of Rev Indy, an IU Health Foundation fundraiser that supports statewide trauma and critical care programs, also decided to forego its 2020 celebration because of the potential health risks, said Carol A. Howard, executive director of Rev.

“We spent months weighing all the options to safely hosting Rev this year,” Howard said. “Our number one goal as a leading healthcare organization is to safeguard the health, safety and well-being of all of our guests, vendors, chefs, entertainers and volunteers.”

The cancellation of these major fundraisers followed extensive research and planning, according to their organizers. Some of the questions that emerged included: Do you approach sponsors and ticket holders about maintaining their financial contribution — even in the face of their own potential economic hardships? What about investing in the logistics of planning an alternative virtual event? And, with cases of COVID19 resurging in Indiana, how do you plan for future events?

“There’s not a one-size-fits-all solution,” said Zoobilation’s McDearmon, who noted that she has previously worked at nonprofits of varying sizes and resources. “Ultimately, you have to do what’s best to protect your brand and reputation as well as those of your sponsors and partners. If you can’t host your event safely, then you need to weigh different options.”

McDearmon said it’s also important to include committee members in conversations about how to move forward.

Howard stressed the importance of being fluid with planning in the midst of a changing environment.. “We are in a time that ‘new’ event concepts can be born and executed safely during this time, which ultimately can create new opportunities for non-profits in the long term.”

As part of its planning in the wake of COVID-19 and social justice protests locally and nationally, Rev organizers announced that some of the proceeds from its canceled 2020 event would be directed to the Iu Health Foundation’s Racial Equity in Healthcare Fund.

Ewing Kostoff pointed out that virtual events may be a possibility. School on Wheels hosted an online option and, as a result of that event and the generosity of its donors, reached its fundraising goal. “Focus on what makes sense for your individual organization,” Ewing Kostoff said. “It has to make sense for what you’re trying to accomplish. Who is your audience? How do you get them engaged? What can your staff do in a short amount of time? Those are critical questions to ask.”

School on Wheels Hosts a Virtual Event

When event organizers for School on Wheels’ Education Celebration first understood the initial impact of COVID-19, they made plans to postpone the April event to June 25. “We hoped things were looking different by then,” said Ewing Kostoff. “We also wanted to try to get the event in before the end of our fiscal year..”

With uncertainty increasing about the viability of hosting the June 25 event, the team started exploring another Plan B, an option that would take them into unchartered territory. The Education Celebration committee members researched online for tutorials on how to host a virtual event. They also contacted other nonprofits that had switched to virtual events, including Second Helpings and St. Mary’s Child Center.

After making the decision to host a virtual event, the planning committee focused on several critical areas, including how to deliver value to sponsors. “By the time we got to March, we had already secured all of our sponsors,” Ewing Kostoff said. “We felt we had to deliver the benefits that we promised them from an in-person event, something creative and equitable.”

While the organization wasn’t able to offer sponsors tangible items like a table with dinner, they realized they could adhere to the idea of highlighting their brands in a program. In addition to featuring the sponsors on the homepage of the Education Celebration site, they featured them in an ad in the Indianapolis Business Journal, social media posts and other platforms. “We tagged them at every opportunity,” Ewing Kostoff said.

Another critical focus was the event’s auction, which relied on the donations of local businesses. Typically, organizers would approach businesses for gifts to sporting events, concerts, hotel stays and restaurants. “We felt we couldn’t go to those people and ask for those things,” Ewing Kostoff said. “We didn’t want to ask restaurants for donations at a time when they’re closing their doors. We never want anyone to feel pressured”

However, Ewing Kostoff said she did heed the advice of some of her fundraising peers:“It never hurts to ask. Give them an option.”

While the donated items were smaller in scale than in previous years, bidders paid more than they had anticipated. “They wanted to support what we’re doing,” Ewing Kostoff said. “We have the most amazing sponsors. They stuck with us and showed us, ‘We’re with you.’”

Promotion also was a key consideration as part of the event planning, Ewing Kostoff said. With an in-person event, organizers were focused on a limited number of people. That focus shifted significantly with an online event.

“We could widen the scope of our audience,” Ewing Kostoff said. “With an in-person event, you’re limited to the number of people you can put in the room. We reached out to all the supporters, sponsors and people who attended any of our events in the past. We let them know that we’re doing a virtual event and invited them to sign up to receive text messages.”

They also included online event details in newsletters and all of their social media channels, and encouraged their supporters to invite their friends to the online event.

When planning an online event for the first time, Ewing Kostoff said, it’s important to keep the right focus. “Focus on what makes sense for your individual organization, what you’re trying to accomplish and how to get your audience engaged,” she said. “And focus on it being the best virtual event you’ve ever done. Don’t try to compare it to what we’ve done in the past.

“That took the pressure off our team,” Ewing Kostoff added. “We’re really proud of what we were able to pull together. It was wonderful to see how many people came through that day and the next day.”

Another key takeaway from Ewing Kostoff was the importance of conveying the message of the nonprofit’s mission in the midst of the pandemic.

“We provide tutoring for children facing homelessness. We typically provide that tutoring onsite, in schools and in shelters,” she explained. “When things started to shift in March, we really did have to pivot. We had to figure out how to reach those students. One of the barriers for a lot of kids we work with is technology. We started having conversations with our partners about ways to get students the tools they need so they don’t fall behind.”

School on Wheels consistently explores different ways to convey the message behind its mission, Ewing Kostoff said. “Our mission doesn’t go away. The need for education never stops, We try to stay focused on the importance of what we’re doing and how to embrace new ways to talk about what we’re doing.”

Zoobilation Looks Ahead

While Zoobilation has an enviable reputation, selling out all of its 2019 tickets in less than 10 minutes, organizers don’t take its popularity for granted.

“We pretty much plan the next year before we even finish the current year,” said Julie McDearmon. “Before we decided to postpone, we were already planning Zoobilation 2021. We’re constantly having to look forward — even strategically looking five years out to determine how to keep it exciting. It’s a constant cycle.”

Before its cancellation, Zoobilation 2020 was projected to raise $2.5 million in support of the zoo’s mission of empowering people and communities, both locally and globally, to advance animal conservation. That amount represented approximately 8 percent of the Indianapolis Zoo’s annual operating revenue.

When making the decision to cancel Zoobilation, organizers prioritized the health of its supporters as well as the long-term reputation of Zoobilation and its partners, according to McDearmon.

They also considered the economic fallout caused by COVID-19. “Our restaurant partners and many sponsors have been hit hard this year and are struggling. That was another strong consideration in canceling Zoobilation,” she said.

McDearmon also said it was important to offer ticket holders various options in response to the cancellation of the event. They were given the opportunity to donate the cost of the tickets, ranging from $300 (general admission) to $600 (Premium Experience), as a charitable gift; repurpose the ticket for Zoobilation 2021 or request a refund.

“We know many people are struggling right now. All of us at the Indianapolis Zoo are grateful that people are being very generous and letting us keep their Zoobilation ticket fee or sponsorship as a full donation,” she said. “We also realize that there are some who aren’t able to do that.”

Early on, as Zoobilation committee members discussed options for the 2020 event, they considered the possibility of hosting a virtual event, McDearmon said. Their research included observing virtual events hosted by other zoos and aquariums.

At the end, they decided it was not a viable alternative for Zoobilation. “When you have a production that’s this big, you have to pay a lot to execute it well. You need to consider if you can give your guests the same experience they expect and pay for normally,” McDearmon said. “Virtual events may work for some nonprofits, but the Indianapolis Zoo decided the event execution wasn’t there for us.”

As in previous years, McDearmon, her events team, and other Zoobilation committee members are already looking ahead. Plans for Zoobilation 2021 are underway, including logo and other creative development and corporate partnerships.

With COVID-19 impacting all nonprofits in some way, it’s important to explore many options to determine the best path forward, McDearmon said.

“Every nonprofit organization has varying degrees of resources,” she said. “There isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for every nonprofit as they navigate the special events landscape during this challenging time. My advice would be to protect your brand, image and reputation, and that of your sponsors and partners, when you determine how to proceed.”

Rev Indy navigates a new path

For the past six years, Rev Indy has played a vital role in supporting IU Health’s mission.

“Our funding goals have been focused and deliberate to ensure no matter where you are injured in Indiana, you can access IU Health Trauma Care,” Howard said.

Funds raised from Rev 2019 were specifically directed to support 911 access trauma ESO integration, a new mobile critical care ambulance and trauma education.

Like other nonprofits, the discussions about what to do with Rev 2020 started early in the year, as COVID-19 cases were being reported in Indiana. The decision-making process involved several factors, Howard said.

“If we took a ‘show must go on’ perspective during a public health crisis, it may make our guests feel we are being irresponsible or inconsiderate of their health,” Howard said. “The long-term impact could be a significant loss in giving. Since we are a healthcare organization, our decision will be under a microscope.”

Also, since the serving of food and beverages is a significant part of Rev, many of the biggest contributors to Rev are facing economic challenges caused by the pandemic, she said. “Many restaurant partners have been facing months of lost revenue.”

“Another consideration was the safety of staff members and volunteers working during the event,” Howard said. “We had to ask ourselves, ‘How will this outbreak impact the safety of our team? Are we risking their well-being?’ These are questions we had to consider.”

After outlining their concerns, the Rev committee consulted with its legal team to navigate options as COVID-19 updates emerged. “They were extremely helpful in looking into all of our concerns,” Howard said.

With Rev attracting a large crowd of guests intermingling over food and drinks, the risks were clear, Howard said. “With large events, it is difficult to enforce social distancing and occasional bottlenecking of people in certain areas, such as entrances, egresses, and restrooms.”

While the Rev committee eventually decided to cancel the event, they also used it as an opportunity to expand its impact.

“Over the last year, we have been looking to expand Rev’s funding opportunities,” Howard said. “In the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement, a donor asked how he could help IU Health do something about the stark differences in health among racial and ethnic groups, which were brought to the forefront during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

Howard said that IU Health had already been addressing these differences on many fronts, needed a focused fund through which donors could support a broad range of initiatives.

“The IU Health Foundation created the Racial Equity in Healthcare Fund to support IU Health’s work in advancing equitable care for all and we felt it was a perfect time to expand our funding opportunities,” she said. “This fund will support creative and effective initiatives addressing health inequities among Hoosiers.”

Rev ticket holders and sponsors were given the option to donate funds to the IU Health Foundation to reduce racial equity in healthcare or statewide trauma and critical care programs, or to transfer their tickets to Rev 2021.

Top sponsors who chose to donate their funds were invited to “Taste of Rev,” an Aug. 1 event that allows up to four cars from each company to drive around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, stopping at pit stop locations along the way for pre-packaged food and beverages and photo opportunities.

“We also accommodated everyone who requested a refund for this year’s event if either options did not work for them,” Howard said.

Jun 29

Nonprofit start-ups give former inmates new options

By Feature, Programming, Uncategorized

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Last year, nearly 10,500 adults were released from Indiana Department of Correction’s custody. In Marion County alone, 2,485 adults, of which 203 were females, rejoined the community.

While some find programs that help with their re-entry, other former inmates struggle. According to research, however, adults who find immediate, comprehensive support that focuses on transitioning ex-offenders back into society, have dramatic reduced rates of recidivism.

In Marion County, the Re-entry Coalition run by Community Solutions provides a connection and network for county re-entry programs. Lena Hackett, president and founder of Community Solutions, a community development consulting firm, has worked with well-established nonprofits that do this type of work, but has seen start-ups get in the game in the past several years. The coalition convenes monthly working groups and a two-part, large-group quarterly meeting that opens with work groups sharing results, and then sharing information and providing education.

“I know that there are people who have different beliefs or different values, but we’re still all working, using our resources, our networks, to say, ‘How do we make this change?’ It’s pretty exciting,” said Elizabeth (Liz) Wallin, founder of Project Lia, which supports women exiting the correctional system.

Wallin is one of several founders of start-up efforts. Ericka Sanders works with dads inside Putnamville Correctional Facility and founded YouYesYou! to keep dads and daughters connected. Nick Greven is interim director of FOCUS Initiatives, which began as a correspondence project in Bloomington and is just getting started in Indianapolis. His group, which is not yet a part of the Marion County Re-entry Coalition, will provide former inmates with a range of services and eventually will be run by the four inmates instrumental in getting the program off the ground.
All believe in the importance of building trust.

Project Lia

Wallin, who grew up in Queens, New York, came to Indianapolis in 2016 for an internship at Mundell and Associates. Her quest was to learn about the Irvington company’s profit-sharing model. As a member of the Economy of Communion network, the environmental company divides its profits in thirds, a portion going to the community, a portion back into the business and the remainder to a general global fund. During her time in Indianapolis, she also volunteered with a group involved in a mosquito netting project at the Indiana Women’s Prison.

As a result of that connection, she started doing research into the root causes of female incarceration. She also started mapping the re-entry programs available in Indianapolis for women.

“I was very much looking at it like an analysis and trying to dig for data (to determine) would that be a sustainable project to take outside of the prison walls, so that when individuals return to the community, they would have that skill set and could plug right in as they gained some sort of stability. I was looking at it purely in a data-driven way.”

And that’s when the idea of Project Lia developed, said Wallin, founder and executive director. When her internship finished, Wallin stayed in the city, and with some of Economy of Communion funding, jumpstarted the program which is named for an Argentinian woman who dedicated her life to building bridges between races, cultures and religions.

Just under 10 percent of America’s prisoners are women. While men and women returning face some common challenges, some other barriers vary by gender. Women are statistically more likely to be expected to care for children or other family members. The basic premise is to help women rebuild their lives after incarceration.

The program’s length is designed to be six months to a year. As advancements are made through technical skills and the life skills program, job titles and pay can also advance. The goal is to make a successful transition to a long-term career opportunity. Along the way, program participants receive instruction in financial literacy, communication, business ethics, and health and wellness, and receive support for a future job search. As part of the process of rebuilding their lives, the women reuse discarded materials to design and build furniture and other items that contribute to the nonprofit’s revenues.

Word of the program is shared at the Women’s Prison, and last fall, “New America” produced a piece for the Atlantic that shared its mission and plans for scaling.

“It’s a pretty exciting moment. I think it also helps us in building our credibility as an organization and the work that we do. Because many times, it’s a hard sell — that very emotional, relational work that happens in community organizing and community development,” said Wallin.

Atlantic: Rebuilding after incarceration by James Fallow.
(Oct. 7, 2019)

“We’re creating taxpaying individuals, productive individuals, but that work only is sustained through relationships. It only really changes a long-term impact if you build those relationships and invest in the other. And that story’s hard to sell because it can be expensive and it’s messy. It doesn’t look like what you want it to look like, it looks like what it looks like.”

Besides funding from Economy of Communion, the nonprofit has received funding from the Plus Program, and is working with the Department of Correction to determine if a grant is feasible. Revenue from products and projects has been another source of income.

Just before the shelter-in-place order, Timesia Keys was hired as the full-time operations manager. During the pandemic, Wallin said it has not added any participants to the program, but applied for and received assistance from the Paycheck Protection Program through LISC and its landlord has provided some rent relief.

Some of the ways Wallin said the program measures success is to look at savings and checking accounts and financial management before and after the program.

“The career pathway we take is on a very individual basis. It’s like: ‘Where do you want to go? What do you want to be doing?’ and then we work on that,” Wallin said. Wallin also tries to connect women to community resources.

Joyce (using only her first name here) has been in the program for about six months and found it through PACE. Besides upholstering, she’s learned to fix windows, since a revenue generator for Project Lia is repairing all the transom windows in the Circle City Industrial Complex where the program is housed. But at her core, Joyce is a true leader. She is hungry for knowledge about the administrative side of a nonprofit, because she wants to start a transitional home for former women inmates.

Wallin said the program’s first employee is now a manager at a Bloomington beauty salon and has just purchased her first house.

“It’s exciting to be part of her life. She was at that point in the program helping us, more than we were helping her, it felt like. Love her story.”

But at the core, Wallin, who has grown up with people investing in her development, believes it is about social justice.

“I believe strongly in our ability to create a united world and peaceful communities. In loving the other, it is hard and simple at the same time — simple concept, radical implementation. So that’s sort of what’s my guiding post and how do we fight for equity for all,” she said.

Project Lia

WHO SERVED: Women over 18 who have been incarcerated.

WHAT: Social enterprise, started in 2017, working to address economic barriers to re-entry success. Participants develop workforce skills by repurposing discarded material into furnishings and accessories. Participants are paid $10 an hour to start, and after a three-month evaluation, earn $11, and eventually top at $12, and get help opening savings and checking accounts. The John Boner Neighborhood Center offers participants financial literacy and management support.

PROGRAM GOAL: Help women become self-sufficient, build a resume and. According to Project Lia’s mission statement: “We exemplify an inclusive local economy and ultimately help our participants become self-sufficient and valued members of society. We aim to create a space of understanding and mutual respect – a space where transforming material, transforms lives. Using excess materials growing the business and organization step-by-step.”

LOCATION: 1125 Brookside Avenue, Suite C1, Indianapolis, IN 46202.

Before Covid-19, purchasing items designed and made by the women were available in a small shop onsite during the week, and at area farmers’ markets and festivals. In the interim, online shopping is available.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: Volunteers have shared skills, like woodworking and sewing, donated building materials like lumber, tools and fabric and glass jars.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.projectlia.org/

YouYesYou!

Every year, Ericka Sanders and her husband start their year setting goals. But 2014 was different. That year, she decided this would be her year to “to do something.”

A friend read a story about a father-daughter dance at a Virginia prison. That project idea didn’t go away. Sanders had grown up without her father actively in her life and was driven by a desire to help daughters have an experience that she didn’t have. She decided that a father-daughter dance could be her “do something.” According to a 2017 Incarceration to Reentry study in Indiana, 70 percent of people coming out of prison are parents, and the collateral consequences are often intergenerational.

By November, she had pulled together a first event at the Indianapolis Re-Entry Educational Facility on the Near Eastside. At that dance, 26 estranged fathers got the chance to reconnect with 37 daughters, as young as 2 and as old as 29.

By 2016, Sanders established a nonprofit, YouYesYou!, and began building relationships between incarcerated fathers and their daughters, which now includes programming inside prison facilities. A former Indianapolis Recorder reporter, now working full time for Simon Property Group, she has found the time to grow the program beyond the dance.

Besides the father-daughter annual dance, there are Halloween parties for families and their dads, monthly book clubs and workshops designed for the incarcerated fathers that introduce them to organizations focused on re-entry, rehabilitation and other activities. Additionally, on the outside, families build relationships by attending events like basketball games.

Those monthly Saturday book clubs allow time for the dads to talk and learn to build relationships with each other. She arrives with three or four questions about the book and inspirations that can be drawn from the text and asks if the inmates see themselves in the book’s characters.

“A lot of the times, the stories that we read are stories of triumph. Stories of people who have been dealt the most terrible hand but somehow, some way, they made it through. We talk a lot about the future and about dreaming. They don’t like to think much about that. But I kind of force them to do that because it’s important,” Sanders said.

But mostly she said, they just talk and learn a lot about each other.

“They’re pretty vulnerable at this point. By the time they’re in book club, they know me and they trust me. We know what each other is going through, so when we’re reading these books, we’re drawing from all of those different things.”

Sanders also encourages participants to thank whoever is taking care of their kids while the participants are incarcerated and to advocate for each other. Many guys, she said, are so much closer and are friends who hold each other accountable to stay out of trouble.

“The fathers in my program have made terrible, terrible decisions, multiple, multiple times. But they are human beings, and they are people, and sometimes if you just sit and you listen to their stories and you listen to their life and the brokenness that they come from and the things that they’ve had to deal with, you can kind of understand why they made some of the terrible decisions that they made.

“I really think that connecting them with their kids is the push that they need to be on good behavior and the push that they need that when they’re released, they will not come back. That is the basis of what we do.”

“A YouYesYou! father who getting out of prison has confidence, they believe in themselves. They’ve healed some relationships. They’re just different people. I hear that all the time. Basically, it’s just believing in them. It is so important that I get across that what we do is that we just believe in them,” Sanders said.

Earlier this year, she received a $50,000 United Way’s Innovation Award and is using part of the funds to hire a consultant to strengthen and grow her board. Plans are also underway to grow the program with the addition of the program at Plainfield, but the Department of Correction requires programs to be similar. So Sanders started her year honing the activity specifics, re-entry organizations’ workshops and the book club. Christamore House has plans to add a re-entry program, and YouYesYou! will collaborate and handle the family-engagement workshops to keep families of incarcerated engaged and connected.

She is still in communication with the Plainfield facility and Christamore House, but with the pandemic, expansion plans are on hold. The time has afforded her the opportunity to recruit a three-member working board which is scouting for additional members, and fine-tuning the program’s syllabus.

“Families of incarceration are often forgotten about. I think often people don’t realize the impact that incarceration has on families. What I’ve found, just the communication that the kids have with their dads, it helps the family all the way around,” Sanders said.

In five years, she sees the program expanding to more facilities and doing more family engagement activities in community centers.

“(The key is) to be able to just keep those families connected,” Sanders said. “The easy part is being in jail, if you want to be real about it. You know some guys are terrified to come out of prison. I would love to be able to share my blueprint with other individuals in Indiana and with other prison facilities and other states. It doesn’t have to be me running this program, it can be done anywhere, everywhere.”

She doesn’t want anything in return, she just wants them to be great dads. “Because by being a great dad, you’re not only helping yourself and your kids, but you’re helping their future.”

YouYesYou!

WHO SERVED: Fathers at Putnamville Correctional Facility, a medium security correctional facility. First father-daughter dance in 2014. Started at Putnamville in 2018 with 20 dads and ended up with 10; in 2019, 23 dads in the program, ended up with 21; and in 2020, the prison had 225 applications and selected 30. Those 30 are still involved. To date, eight have been released from prison and have not returned.

WHAT: Two-year project. Features workshops provided by re-entry organizations, like PACE, Recycle Force, EmployIndy, Goodwill’s New Beginnings and CareSource, which provide connections on the outside to employment and services. Fun activities with kids – father-daughter dance, Halloween party for daughters and sons and a family back-to-school event in August to maintain connections to family. A monthly book club that begins in November. When the program wraps up, the majority of dads are either out or on their way out when the program wraps up.

PROGRAM GOAL: To support the relationships between incarcerated fathers and their children by offering fun and engaging programs inside prison walls.

LOCATION: Putnamville Correctional Facility, 1946 W. U.S. Hwy 40, Greencastle, IN

FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.facebook.com/youyesyouproject/
http://youyesyouproject.com/?fbclid=IwAR1IMdkbcb-1RKcVNu3hupiF9kk9Z8pgoVEDzQK1ymMEX7KwOAPL6qugAno

FOCUS Initiatives

Nick Greven has had firsthand experience with prisoners who struggle outside prison walls. His involvement started five years ago when he helped start IDOC-Watch. It’s a watchdog group that corresponds with inmates, particularly those who have been incarcerated for lengthy periods of time. While IDOC-Watch started in Bloomington, it now has about 50 people involved in chapters in Indianapolis, Gary, South Bend, Evansville and Fort Wayne.

Through contact, the group came to a greater understanding of incarcerated life and potential need for increased support. And what it also learned was that for individuals who have been incarcerated for decades, there are enormous challenges to reacclimate to life outside prison walls. Often, they have lost contact with their prior support systems, particularly if they were incarcerated at a young age. For those with little experience outside of prison, navigating the world is new and finding stable housing and employment are among their significant hurdles.

The urgency of creating FOCUS Initiatives became clear when Faheem Shabazz (formerly Jerry Smith), incarcerated as a teen, was released from prison in 2018, and efforts were made to help him navigate the hardships of re-entry. He had been corresponding with IDOC-Watch.

“I was trying to help him get on his feet,” Greven said. “He was locked up in adult prisons when he was 14, and been in prison for 20 years, actually growing up in prison. He was ill.

“It was just really hard for him to get on his feet. Impossible to find a place to rent and was really hard to find a job. Unable to find consistent work, he was staying with his mom, and it wasn’t going well. He just didn’t really know how to exist in the world.”

What he needed, the group realized, was sustainable support until he got to a position where he could take care of himself. This experience to help Shabazz resulted in FOCUS Initiatives that was designed by a team of current and former incarcerated individuals in collaboration with community allies. Not created in isolation, it drew on models like San Francisco-based Planting Justice and a Los Angles program for women, A New Way of Life. FOCUS Initiatives launched in 2019, and stands for Forever on Course United in Solidarity.

Shabazz is currently incarcerated on a technical parole violation at Westville Correction Facility in Westville, Indiana. Greven’s hope was that he would be more involved if he was released in March, but parole was denied.

“He’s been involved to the extent that he’s able to while incarcerated, but it’s pretty difficult. Anything that is time sensitive or detailed is pretty challenging,” said Greven, who is serving as interim director until the men are released from DOC custody.

“I’m the interim director until people are ready to take it over fiscally. We have people who are planning on doing that and get on their feet. Four people who are close collaborators on the project are getting out (of prison) between now and June,” said Greven.

“They have like some time to adjust, get their feet under themselves. A period of months to get used to be in a world outside of prison before there’s any financial pressures. The first step is getting people what they need to survive without having to be under a lot of stress when they first get out. And then also having a supportive community, especially of people who have been or had similar experiences around them to where they can consult with each other about what they are going through. There’s all kinds of PTSD and prison has all kinds of psychological effects. People who have not been in prison cannot understand how it affects someone,” said Greven.

The first phase is to buy a house that will be available for two to five former inmates. The house will have a group counseling space with a re-entry circle. It can also host formerly incarcerated or family members for get-togethers. It will be a place for several to live and work to organize the rest of the program. The group has been looking at the Eastside, east of Rural Street, to find affordable property that meets the program needs. The group has plans to start a business in the second phase.

“They’re going to establish a prototype or test run for the project to see what we need. It’s long term, and we’re trying to do it in a way so that we’re not dependent on big grants, so it’s an independent organization,” said Greven.

FOCUS Initiatives

WHO SERVED: Individuals returning to Marion County/Indianapolis from prison.

WHAT: Four-phase project that takes into account the underlying or “root” causes of mass incarceration.

PROGRAM GOAL: Launched in 2018 by a group of community allies and incarcerated individuals to build a Marion County community for former inmates. Plan is to include counseling services, a business, a legal clinic and medical services.

LOCATION: Seeking to purchase a house for two to five former inmates on the Eastside of Indianapolis.

FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.focusreentry.com/about

Jun 08

Pandemic helps nonprofit see new path

By Feature, Programming

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

By sheer numbers, very little good has come as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. In the U.S., there have been more than 2 million cases, more than 110,000 lives lost, nearly 40 million people unemployed and no clear signs that better times are close.

But for two Indiana nonprofits — Carey Services and Second Harvest Food Bank of East Indiana — the pandemic has forced them to rethink their operations. For the leaders of both organizations, resilience is a key word in their vocabularies.

And maybe … just maybe, they will be stronger when life resumes as normal.

Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana

Muncie-based Second Harvest Food Bank of East Central Indiana is a hunger-relief organization started in 1983 that provides food through a network of 96 agencies and 35 schools in eight counties.

Tim Kean has been its CEO/president since 2012. During the pandemic, he said the agency is finding new ways to reach people.

“I think when circumstances present themselves, you can push back and try to resist,” said Kean. “But if you have the perspective of leaning into the circumstance and using that force that you’re feeling in your favor, then I think you can leverage a lot of benefit (for) the people that you’re trying to serve.

“(Second Harvest) has moved to the place where we are leaning into this and looking at it on some level as being transformational.”

So, what has changed and how has the organization adapted?

Its food supply has been interrupted. Consequently, with donations not coming from its traditional sources, it has had to find alternative ways to procure food said Kean. As a Feeding America network member, it has leveraged national food opportunities, but the bottom line is it has had to purchase food in the marketplace to give it away.

With the high demand, food banks have been forced to quickly ramp up their efforts. In Indiana, news reports have depicted long car lines waiting for mobile food distributions. And while Second Harvest has used this delivery method for over 20 years, what is new is the volume. Nearly double, for each distribution it now uses two loaded semis and serves 2,000 to 3,000 families, up from 800 to 1,000 a year ago. During June, 32 mobile distributions are scheduled.

Volunteers have been a mainstay for the nonprofit, and in a typical year, it relies on 4,300 volunteers to assist with food distribution. But in March, the organization sought to eliminate risk and curtailed access to the warehouse and headquarters, forcing it to find alternative ways to distribute food.

Local organizations have helped fill the gap. Now, rented cargo vans loaded with food are picked up by community groups and driven to underserved areas for pop-up pantries. In the first six weeks of the pandemic, 15,000 pounds of food helped 750 families. In addition to food, diapers, an often-overlooked item, are part of this weekly distribution.

Activated citizen soldiers have been part of its new crew. When the governor activated the National Guard, Second Harvest Food Bank was assigned 30 men and women from a Brigade Support Battalion (BSB). Kean said they are assigned only until June 24 if funding is not approved to extend deployment. If not, Plan B is in place – to hire temporary workers to continue the activity at the current level.

“Quite honestly, I don’t anticipate the need diminishing during that time period. So, we’ve got to figure out how to get that done,” said Kean. “

“We’re not doing it, the community’s doing it. We’re finding that there are new opportunities. So, it’s that kind of thing that I think lends itself toward stepping into the change and embracing it and figuring out how you can become something bigger and stronger than you were in the past and more effective. It’s not just about being bigger, but it’s about being more effective,” said Kean.

Kean noted that there are internal changes as well.

“We are transforming our organization internally in our staff structure, in areas of emphasis. We’ve been hiring people, and we’re going to continue to hire people. We’ve been acquiring new equipment because we’re in a different place.

“I don’t see us looking in the rear-view mirror saying, ‘I hope we can get back to where we were some point soon.’ That is over. We’re at a new place and we’re embracing that, and we’re looking at ways we continue to facilitate growth.”

“I am not at all driven down by the circumstance, if anything I’m energized because this has given us an opportunity to go and find some diamonds. You have to push a lot of things out of the way to get those diamonds, and we’re willing to do that.”

Carey Services

Marion-based Carey Services has served people with disabilities since 1954 with the mission of helping people “turn abilities and barriers into opportunities.” Since 2013, Jim Allbaugh has been its CEO/president. During the pandemic, he said he’s been constantly reminded that the answers to challenges were close.

“It’s almost always members of our team, our staff, our families and the people who we serve who are the ones that have the right answers. So (it’s important to) listen, understand and get perspectives,” he said.

“As we came into the pandemic, there was a clear recognition, and it became more evident during this pandemic that we are individually focused on the people that we serve, and on our employees. So what we realized more and more each day was that need to be aware of what each individual that we serve and each employee would require of us during this pandemic,” said Allbaugh.

Among the agency’s services are group homes, an early Head Start program, workforce development and day services. Over the past five years, the agency has worked to integrate its clients into the community.

Roughly, 61 million Americans are living with a disability of some kind, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While the vast numbers are able to live at home, some live in residential placement. That is the case for 90 adults who live in Carey’s group homes that provide 24-hour supervision for six to eight people.

Allbaugh credits staff creativity for helping clients continue to make positive progress during the pandemic. Residents have struggled with understanding why their routines were being disrupted, and why going out in the community was curtailed, and why people are wearing masks.

“If you can imagine, people with intellectual development disabilities sometimes struggle to even say, ‘Why are you wearing this mask? I cannot see your lips, it just doesn’t make sense to me why you’re doing that,’” he said.

As they readied to reopen the main campus, one question drove their efforts: “How can we get back to whatever the new normal is to continue to maximize that level of independence for the folks that we serve? That’s kind of been the path or really the journey, if you will.”

On June 1, the facility reopened some of its services, and Allbaugh said his staff was pleased with the outcome.

“It is so great to see people engaging and turning abilities into opportunities back at our main campus. We look forward to next steps with our Phase II and Phase III, and in July, our Early Head Start classroom reopening,” he said.

During the pandemic employees in different departments advocated for alternative ways to deliver services to continue progress. When the agency furloughed the Employment Services team, Allbaugh said an employee challenged that decision. He presented a case for reinstating the team, using Zoom and other technologies to engage participants.

Allbaugh said his employee made a persuasive argument. “‘He said, ‘Jim, we’ve made too much progress with these high school-aged special needs kids who need to keep the momentum moving on their career goals. You need to let us come back and get back to work and do these things from a technology base.’

“The positive results from that effort are great. They’ve kept in contact, kept engaged, kept learning and growing,”Allbaugh said.

And while, staff were already investigating these methods, the pandemic jump started them. And Indiana officials have been open to learning what kind of alternative-service delivery is possible.

“One of our goals is figuring out how to tell the story to those that fund us in such a way to say, ‘You know we cannot go back. Here’s the success and certainly the data is proof.’ We’ve got to be able to figure out how to be allowed to continue to provide this kind of support,” Allbaugh said.

The internet has also helped in other ways. In 2016, the nonprofit started an arts program, Creative Hearts Art Studio. Besides individual expression and discovery, the project was also about integrating clients into the community. During the pandemic, however, that effort was thwarted, limiting the community’s access to the shop. So, plans to open an online store became a priority.

“Knowing that everybody was now on their computers and living virtual lives, our team got together and said ‘Now is the time. We’ve got to push this out because people are on their computers right now.’ This is another opportunity to tell our story in a world where folks are living in that online environment,” said Allbaugh.

Allbaugh said from the beginning of shelter-in-place, rather than wallowing in the challenges of the daily stresses, staff began planning for the “new normal.”

“Our team has not permitted that kind of culture to be here.”

A funder commented on the agency’s forward thinking, sharing feedback on an agency proposal that asked for dollars for plexiglass, duct tape and portal hand-sanitizing machines.

“On the surface those things are all kind of simplistic, but the thing the funder appreciated about those three simple tools is the sustainable nature of those items. Those are things that our team thought about that will be something that we may be using for years.

“We need to realize that we’re still in a situation where we still have the same virus, with the same risk, and what this last period has allowed us to do is build and learn and put together a toolbox of safe and health practices and build a sustainable behavior of our employees and the people that we serve,” said Allbaugh.

May 18

Nonprofits rush to take advantage of PPP lifeline

By Feature, Governance

By Lynn Sygiel, editor, Charitable Advisors

Cindy Booth advocates for Marion County’s abused and/or neglected children through her work at Child Advocates.

Rosalyn Demares promotes state artists through Indiana Artisan.

Rachel Sahaidachny invests time and energy helping writers tell their stories at the Indiana Writers Center (IWC).
Julia Whitehead champions Kurt Vonnegut’s legacy at the museum and library that bear his name.

What these four nonprofit leaders have in common is that they applied for Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Paycheck Protection Program loans. As of May 8, Indiana SBA-approved lenders helped complete 71,614 loans, totaling more than $9.66 billion, according to SBA.

What is not clear, however, is how many of these loans were approved for nonprofits.

Laura Schafsnitz, public affairs specialist at the Indiana District Office of the SBA, said that its priority is still processing funds, and has not yet differentiated between the two eligible groups – nonprofits and small business.

United Way of Central Indiana and the Arts Council of Indianapolis found some answers through a survey of local nonprofits concerning the status of PPP applications.

Denise Luster, UWCI’s vice president of impact research and analytics, said it reached out to 118 nonprofits in six counties ranging from grassroots organizations to those with multi-million dollar budgets. The target audience was the human services sector, but it reached beyond United Way’s network of accredited partners.

Of the 118 respondents, 85 applied (72 percent) for a PPP loan. By the end of April when the responses were tallied, 68 nonprofits had received approval, and 17 had not yet received word. Of the 68 approved, 50 had funds in their bank accounts. The average amount applied for was $352,872. The April 30 report does not reflect second round of PPP loans application, which opened just three days prior.

Ernest Disney-Britton, the Arts Council of Indianapolis’ vice president of community impact, shared similar data.

“I can tell you that of the 76 organizations that responded to our survey, 84 percent said they had applied for the Paycheck Protection Program,” he said. “One mid-sized organization indicated that it had received $85,000 and another mentioned it received $329,000.”

Unlike the first round of the PPP program in which funds were depleted quickly, round two still has money to give out, according to Schafsnitz.

The PPP program was not without its well-publicized wrinkles and that’s among the reasons why early in the state’s shelter-in-place order, some nonprofit leaders tried to provide support for local nonprofits. The Arts Council, for example, convenes weekly sessions that include at least 90 CEOs and executive directors. United Way and the Immigrant Welcome Center do the same. In its latest Community Connect report, 53 agencies participated in the Welcome Center’s Partner Power call. These have also been opportunities for nonprofit executives to share information and pose questions.

Child Advocates’ Executive Director Booth said she heard about the PPP through emails from the organization’s state office, national CASA and United Way. These emails shared the opportunity, what it means and what to consider.

But applying for a PPP loan was not for everyone. Booth shared a story about a colleague from southern Indiana who sought her out as sounding board, explaining her thought process and her reasons for her decision.

“I think for the smaller (organizations), sometimes it’s just even talking to somebody. ‘Am I on the right track? Does this sound right to you?’

“She really was being very thoughtful, but when she got to the ‘no,’ she was like, ‘I feel like I should be say, ‘yes.’ There’s money out there, I should be saying yes.’” That director ultimately decided not to apply,” said Booth.

The biggest question for Demares, a one-person staff, was: Is it truly a forgivable loan?” Indiana Artisans has two stores with 13 part-time employees, one in Carmel and one in the French Lick Resort. “We’ve never had any kind of loans, so this was new,” she said.

As information about the program evolved, some had concerns about the reality of forgiveness. PPP loans can qualify for forgiveness, but if not, the loan has a 1% interest rate over two years, with no payments due during the first six months.

Booth figured, while it could be viable, her concern was any negative implications. So with her CFO, she conferred with the agency’s auditor who encouraged her to apply. Booth also talked with her national and state CASA colleagues. This all happened, she said, within a number of hours. Booth said they learned early that you needed to start the process with your local bank. For Child Advocates that was Huntington Bank, and the nonprofit’s board treasurer is a bank employee who connected them the correct staff person at the bank.

All had been in regular contact with their boards or executive committees. Board members, they all agreed, provided helpful information and advice.

There was also information coming from those weekly calls, oftentimes from an expert on a particular topic. The three arts leaders — Demares, Sahaidachny and Whitehead — were regulars on the Arts Council calls.

Sahaidachny said those calls have been a godsend.

“I definitely have learned a lot. It certainly helps because it’s so hard to keep up with everything; to be able to get that recap every week has really helped me through the last two months,” she said.

“The Arts Council really spearheaded this effort of communication which has been amazing. (It is) important for the information, but also important to feel like you’re all in this together, sharing and helping each other and not feeling competitive,” said Whitehead.

After conversations with their bankers, all four had the documents ready when the loan program opened on April 3. For the Writers’ Center that was Regions, for Indiana Artisan it was Old National, Child Advocates banks with Huntington and the Vonnegut Library and Museum banks with National Bank of Indianapolis.

When the SBA launched the Paycheck Protection Program, there were high demands and technical glitches that stalled loan processing.

That wasn’t the case for Whitehead who said the Vonnegut Museum and Library’s CFO submitted its application the morning the program opened.

“We worked closely with our bank. National Bank of Indianapolis worked that entire weekend to process the loans,” she said.

Booth said it was a simple one-page application. “I think our CFO had her finger hovered over the send button as soon as Friday came,” said Booth.

While the two others were ready, they weren’t successful submitting electronically on the first day.

Demares wasn’t able to connect to Old National’s portal to upload any documents. But her banker emailed that evening to say that the portal was open and functioning, but her application would have to be redone. While she Demares did this immediately and successfully submitted it to the bank, it took until April 29 to receive approval from the SBA.

Sahaidachny had a similar experience. Her bank’s online portal kept crashing and freezing. She was finally able to complete the PPP submission the following Monday. Later that week, she received an email from her bank that the SBA had quit taking applications because the dollars had run out. Regions, however, continued to process applications to have ready in anticipation of a second round of funds. The fund was replenished and opened again on April 27. After lots of handwringing, on May 5 the Writers’ Center executive learned the money was deposited in its account.

Two of these nonprofits applied for loans of under $50,000, and two over, reflecting the sizes of their payrolls. In order to receive forgiveness, at least 75 percent must be applied for payroll costs, while the remainder can be used for mortgage interest, utilities and rent. The loan is intended to cover eight weeks of these expenses, and the borrower must then complete forgiveness application and submit to its lender. Ultimately, the bank is responsible for assessing forgiveness.

Booth said Child Advocates learned on April 16 that the organization had been approved, and Whitehead said it was April 7. The next step is applying for forgiveness. Each has a different eight-week period that beginning on the date the lender made the first disbursement of the PPP loan to the borrower.

“We didn’t expect funding as quickly as we did. That was a wonderful surprise,” said Whitehead. “We took the money and put it in a restricted account. We’re using it for payroll, but it’s sitting in a restricted account as we deplete the funds over the next couple of months. We did it for ease of accounting and also just to really highlight that those are special funds.”

All had positive experiences with the local bankers. None of the four knew of any nonprofits that applied that were denied.

“The bankers that I worked with were so responsive to my questions in the beginning of the application process. They really helped us understand what we needed to show and with their help we were able to put that together,” said Sahaidachny.

If there is a silver lining, each was able to keep staff and had the chance to reflect and plan for a different future – delivering services virtually or planning for the safe re-opening.

Whitehead said since the museum and library opened at its new location in November, it’s been a breakneck pace.

“The PPP allowed me to take a breath, and to talk with our staff about what was going well, and what was not going well. We had this wonderful clearing where we can reset. We opened in November and we were operating beyond our capability. This gave us a chance to stop and think, ‘OK what really makes sense. Shat changes do we need to make, so that we can comply with whatever the new normal will be.’”