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Sep 05

Our 2023 survey reveals many nonprofit employees continue to struggle with challenges

By Feature

As a local nonprofit veteran put it, COVID-19, inflation, and organizational flaws all contribute to an inability to thrive in the sector

(This is the first of a two-part article series based on our recent “How Are You Doing?” survey).

With more than three years passing since the outbreak of COVID-19, Charitable Advisors’ Not-for-profit News decided to revisit the survey question we asked of Central Indiana nonprofit employees in 2020: “How are you doing?”

Of the 366 survey respondents, 38.5 percent said that they are feeling “Upbeat and positive about the future.” However, 14 percent said that “Not good, hard to get through the day” was a more accurate definition of how they’re feeling in 2023. And the majority — 47.5 percent said their mindset is “Acceptable, getting by.”

More significantly, 21.5 percent said that they are “doing worse” than they were two years ago — at the height of the turmoil caused by the pandemic and social justice protests. The remaining respondents were evenly split between the choices “Doing better” (40.4 percent) and “About the same” (38 percent).

Some of these varying sentiments were conveyed by a survey respondent who has been working in the nonprofit sector for nearly 20 years. The past several years have been so challenging, she said, that she is planning to leave her organization.

“The nonprofit world is near and dear to my heart,” the survey respondent said during an interview in which she requested anonymity. “But the last three to four years have been so rough in our agency that I am currently looking to leave.”

The main reason? Leadership, said the survey respondent, who described the need for a leadership team that is positive, genuine, trustworthy, diverse in any area, puts aside pride and sets a good example.

“I believe COVID exposed problem areas,” she said. “When there is denial of the root cause, there cannot be correction to the path.”

However, she also pointed to external factors that have contributed to her dissatisfaction with working in the nonprofit sector.

“Overall, as a sector, it is worse due to staffing shortages and the quantity/higher needs of clients,” she said. “Inflation plays a role as well. For the most part, non-for-profit careers are not high paying.”

With the rising costs of living, brought on by inflation, nonprofit organizations have been struggling with fundraising while, at the same time, facing an increased need for services from people who need assistance, she said.

“It has been a constant drain,” she said.

Another anonymous survey respondent shared similar concerns, particularly from the perspective of expanding job demands, particularly for those who work for community foundations.

“I’ve been in the nonprofit sector for almost a decade, and this has by far been my hardest role,” the survey respondent said. “In the past, I’ve been told the workload ebbed and flowed around grant cycles, but since I’ve been here it’s felt more like climbing a constant mountain and never reaching the peak.”

Much of the increased demands can be attributed to the changing role of community foundations, she said.

“As community foundations move away from being ‘just a funder’ and into more leading/convening spaces surrounding community leadership, it requires much more from the staff than grant/scholarship review and coordination,” she said. “We are now required to have other sets of skills like strategic planning, coalition facilitation, capacity building, collective impact, research, and evaluation. We also will never have enough funding for all the needs in our community, so having the skills and emotional intelligence to navigate those hard conversations and situations as well as the IQ to piece together other opportunities or support from the foundation is crucial and required.

There’s a real feeling of having to be ‘on’ all the time, she said, including knowing the pulse of the community, understanding the needs of every nonprofit, connecting with various sectors in the community, attending evening and weekend events, and being available for emails and phone calls throughout the day.

Overall, the survey revealed that 36 percent of Central Indiana’s nonprofit employees feel “excellent or very good” about finding purpose in their work, while 45 percent rated it as “pretty good.” However, 18.3 percent said that they were no longer connecting to a purpose in their work.

Jun 19

An effective mental wellness strategy demands a diverse approach

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor/writer, Not-for-profit News

Facing high rates of absenteeism? Or low rates of employee engagement? If so, you may need to consider how well you’re addressing the mental health needs of your employees — especially in developing different approaches for various demographics, according to Jamie Bierman, SHRM-SCP, regional market director at HR Elements, a partner of VonLehman CPA & Advisory Firm.

Gen Z employees, who are just now entering the workforce, may require a significantly different mental wellness strategy than Millennials and employees nearing retirement, according to Bierman, who recently talked to attendees of a HR Nonprofit Peer Group webinar sponsored by Charitable Advisors.

As a result, human resource (HR) professionals and other workplace leaders need to consider how to strategically develop wellness programs based on the needs of various generations as well as cultural backgrounds, Bierman said.

“The workplace consists of all types of different generations and different types of people,” she said. “A mental health is not a one-size-fits-all strategy or solution.”

One of the reasons driving the need for a multi-faceted approach is that the COVID-19 pandemic further shed light on the complexities of mental wellness. Bierman said that many factors can contribute to an employee’s performance at work. For example, an employee may be facing additional stressors if they are in a caretaking role for a child or an elderly parent.

And with 19 percent of U.S. employees reporting that they are struggling with their mental health, nonprofit organizations and other business naturally will experience negative outcomes such as a decrease in employee engagement, Bierman said. Consequently, organizations will see a decrease in business profitability and overall business results, she noted.

“Having a well-being program at work is the new wellness focus that we need to have,” Bierman said. “We need to remember that work and life are not mutually exclusive. We need to help our employees thrive within their lives. If you have a really bad morning, you’re probably not going to walk into the workplace ready to do a good job.”

The pandemic represented a period of managing stress and the unexpected at higher levels. “As HR professionals, not only are we managing it for ourselves, but we’re also trying to figure out how to help all of those individuals — even though we don’t know exactly what’s going on in their lives,” she said.

Bierman highlighted numerous ways that HR professionals can be more effective in addressing the complexities of assisting employees with mental health programs.

Consider generational differences. Bierman said that differences emerge based upon the generation of the employee. For examples, younger employees — such as Gen Zs — are more likely to prioritize mental health. “During job interviews, these are the people who will ask questions like, ‘What mental health resources do you have?’ ‘How many additional PTO days do you provide for a mental health break?’” The needs of older employees — those in their 40s and 50s — may be significantly different because of their increased responsibilities, Bierman said. “This age group that was seeing the highest increases in stress, anxiety, and feelings of negativity in 2021,” she said. “Many of them are probably in high-ranking positions or are stepping into new leadership roles that are demanding and stressful.”

A third demographic that may be facing mental health challenges are those approaching retirement. “They’re probably stressed for different reasons. It may be because they haven’t been able to retire,” Bierman said. “They may be dealing with fear and anxiety, which will have an impact on their mental health.”

Address racial and ethnic disparities. There are racial and ethnic disparities when addressing the mental health crisis in general, Bierman said. Minority groups typically are impacted by mental stress at a higher level but they’re less likely to use these services, she noted. Reports reveal that Asian employees are 51 percent less likely to seek mental help treatment than their white counterparts. Those numbers are 25 percent less likely among Latinos and 21 percent less likely among Black employees. Less representation of minorities in the mental health field and cultural norms contribute to those varying numbers, Bierman said. Similar differences emerge for gender and sexual minorities, who also experience higher rates of poor mental health outcomes. “They’re going to suffer in silence because, from a cultural perspective, it’s not OK to seek mental health support,” Bierman said. Consequently, HR professionals must build connections, relationships, and trust among minority and underrepresented groups, she said.

Regularly promote employee assistance services. One effective way of addressing mental health, Bierman said, is to promote the company’s employee assistance program (EAP) throughout the year — not just during the onboarding process.

“We often enroll employees and then walk away,” she said. “In many cases, when we talk about EAP, we’re focused on promoting the counseling aspects of it. But a lot of EAP programs can help an employee access resources in their community.”

These can include helping an employee find daycare for a child or adult care for an aging parent or helping them with financial challenges.

“Instead of talking about the EAP only during open enrollment and during the health care portion of your benefit presentation, you can regularly talk about EAP in a weekly news blast or in text message reminders to employees,” she said.

Mental Health for a diverse organization webinar replay. One size doesn’t fit all when it comes to the subject of mental health in a diverse workforce. This interactive discussion outlines tips and strategies organizations can take to address the topic of mental health and wellness in a multi-generational workplace. Presented by Nonprofit HR Peer Group. Watch replay

Oct 17

What’s next?: Perspectives on how local nonprofits are moving forward in 2023

By Feature

Several nonprofit employees share their personal insights a year after NFPN survey

by Shari Finnell, editor/writer, Not-for-profit News

How is Central Indiana’s nonprofit industry evolving? What’s next for 2023?

More than a year has passed since Not-for-profit News engaged 500 Central Indiana nonprofit employees as part of a “How Are You Doing?” survey. At that time, we wanted to know how the people who make up Central Indiana’s nonprofit sector were faring during the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, stay-at-home orders, and social and racial justice protests.

In September of 2021, a significant number of survey respondents (54 percent) said they were thinking about leaving their jobs within 12 months. And 72 percent said that their nonprofit’s stance on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) work impacted them.

Recently, we contacted several survey respondents who were willing to be interviewed about what had transpired since last year.

While the nonprofit employees’ responses varied, it was clear that the unprecedented events in recent years significantly impacted how their organizations will fare throughout 2023 — either positively or negatively. One person decided to leave the nonprofit field as a full-time career, while others decided to stay in environments experiencing high levels of employee turnover. For some, the pandemic strengthened their resolve to elevate their nonprofit missions.

The following includes an overview of their responses.

Nonprofit veteran decided to leave industry

A 25-year nonprofit veteran in Central Indiana, who will remain anonymous, quit her full-time job at a local nonprofit, making her among the approximately 4.5 million Americans who quit their jobs in 2021, a statistic reported by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“I’ve always prided myself on working in a nonprofit and making it better than it was when I started,” said the employee, who launched a travel agency and consults for her former employer about 5 to 8 hours a week. “I wasn’t feeling that anymore. I wasn’t feeling like I was having any impact on anything. I wasn’t finding value in working for this particular nonprofit.”

While the pandemic accelerated her decision, she said, the work environment — including a high turnover rate among board members, a lack of inclusivity in decision-making, and a toxic culture — already had put her on a course to seek other opportunities.

She said that she believes the nonprofit lost sight of its mission. “To me, this (travel opportunity) is more impactful than raising money for a scholarship or to keep the lights on. It’s filling my bucket, my sense of purpose,” she said. “I’m encouraging people to travel to places they may not normally go. Writing fundraising copy just wasn’t cutting it anymore.”

In looking forward to 2023 and beyond, the former nonprofit employee said, she would encourage nonprofit teams, starting with the top executives, to re-engage with their mission.

“Somewhere, from the top to the bottom, we’ve lost the whole point,” she said. “Are we filling widgets. Are we raising money? With our most recent fundraising letter, they were focused on the size of the document and the need to fill every panel with a lot of text as opposed to what we really needed for our mission.”

Some nonprofits do make a personal connection with their donors, as evidenced by a local cat shelter that sent her a thank you letter for a donation made on her behalf. Along with a handwritten note with a cat image, the nonprofit sent a newsletter that had been written in Microsoft Word and featured numerous images of cats.

“They told me what they were doing specifically with my money,” she said. “There was nothing fancy. They taped a picture of a cat to the front and wrote something meaningful. I still have it because I think it’s so cute. I read it all the time. They got it right.”

The survey respondent also noted that the Great Resignation included people of all ages and industries, including her husband, who changed corporate jobs to work for a smaller company. She believes management will need to have more meaningful conversations with employees about their mission and their role in it. The message should not be “We need you in the office three days a week” or “Here’s a Starbucks gift card,” she said.

Staying the course amidst a sector in constant change

While the recent upheaval in Central Indiana’s nonprofit has been evident in various areas, Patty Cortellini is among those staying the course as director of agency relations for Second Helpings. “I guess it’s in my blood. I truly believe in the mission of Second Helpings,” said Cortellini, who is preparing to celebrate her 13th anniversary at the nonprofit organization.

“From an organizational standpoint, we have seen a lot of turn over,” she said. “A year ago, our CEO, Jennifer Vigran retired, and several other key individuals have moved on to other positions. Internally, we have seen changes among the ranks. The burnout due to COVID is high.”

Cortellini noted that Vigran was among a series of key local CEOs who announced their resignations, including John Whittaker of Midwest Food Bank and John Elliott of Gleaners.

Innovative approaches that Second Helpings implemented to accommodate COVID-19 stay-at-home orders and increasing food needs will likely continue throughout 2023 and beyond, Cortellini said.

“When COVID hit, we pivoted on a dime and created “to-go” containers for drive-through operations. We also implemented home delivery of meals based on need. At the beginning, the calls were screened by the Indy Hunger Network. Now they are screened by Gleaners,” she said. “To this day, we are still delivering food to home bound individuals/families and still packaging meals into to-go containers. I don’t anticipate those models will ever go away.”

The community also has a continuing need for services, based on requests made to Second Helpings, with the number of meals requested doubling from pre-COVID to today. “We have seen the need for sandwiches explode,” Cortellini said. “Currently, we make around 6,000 sandwiches a week.”

Other changes implemented by Second Helpings, Cortellini said, include the following:

  • Second Helping’s CEO, Linda Broadfoot, and the board of directors joined the Good Wage Initiative, a group of Marion County employers who are committed to providing full-time employees a wage of at least $18/hour and access to health insurance benefits.
  • Invested in a new prep area to expand the organization’s services.
  • Switched fundraising events to a virtual format.
  • Formed an internal committee to address DEI initiatives with the guidance of a Martin University professional. The nonprofit had planned to close its office to host the first of two staff-wide DEI training sessions.

Overall, Cortellini said, she is learning to relax. “Just last week, I was able to take a full complete week off,” she said. “I am working on placing more boundaries around me. I don’t feel like we are in a crisis mode like before. We have a little more breathing space.”

Implementing new approaches to nonprofit work

Susan Ferguson, chief program officer at accessABILITY, and a 30-year nonprofit veteran, said that she no longer feels the level of stress she did a year ago. “However, I do believe the almost constant state of stress, overwhelm, and burnout is real in the nonprofit sector,” Ferguson added.

Ferguson noted some positive outcomes because of the major shifts that nonprofit organizations experienced in the wake of the outbreak of the global pandemic.

“New developments include a more remote work environment,” Ferguson said. “We are now looking for new models for space, including renting space in a co-working model for the flexibility it offers. We have a need for a home office, but outside of our administrative and leadership staff, our staff are primarily working from home.”

Community Center’s CEO focuses on community, well-being

For Eric Koehler, CEO of JCC Indianapolis, nonprofit organizations must continue to play a significant role in healing rifts that have emerged in communities in recent years. “The pandemic really polarized our community, our state, our country, our world,” he said. “Our roles as nonprofit leaders in the community are more important than they’ve ever been. Our collective nonprofit mission is to help foster healthier, more inclusive communities from lots of different perspectives.”

He described JCC Indianapolis as a town square of sorts for the surrounding community, no matter a person’s background, orientation, or beliefs. “This is a place where everyone can gather around programmatic interest areas,” he said. “All that other stuff can fall away. That’s probably the most important of our mission. We’re not just a fitness center. We’re a conduit — a vehicle for us to create community. It’s a deliberate process. We foster a sense of community.”

Koehler also said that his leadership team has prioritized the well-being of employees in the wake of the pandemic outbreak. The organization shut down for a day in 2021 for a Mental Health Day, which included a retreat. After the gathering, the employees were able to take the rest of the day off.

“While it’s a common practice in the for-profit sector, service industry organizations may find it difficult to close their after-school care, fitness center, and early childhood programs,” he said. “But we felt like if we don’t take care of our people, they can’t take care of our community.”

Through the national JCC Association, the local JCC also implemented a MESH certification program designed to train participants in recognizing the signs of someone in need of mental health support. The organization also distributed free resources to employees to help them understand where they can seek help for additional mental health support.

On a day-to-day basis, leadership also plays a role in regularly recognizing the good work of their employees.

“As CEOs, our job is to be the primary cheerleader for the organization. Leadership, whether it’s the staff or the board or the executive team, must spend as much time as we can calling out good behaviors,” Koehler said. “We need to praise publicly and provide corrective feedback privately and find moments to celebrate. It shouldn’t be a once-a-month routine. Do it as many times per week as you can. Every time, you tell somebody something nice, you’re filling up someone’s bucket. It probably takes about 20 nice comments to make up for one negative comment.”

To keep up with the demands of his role, Koehler said that he stays grounded through prayer, fitness, and reading. Through decades of serving in the nonprofit sector, he said, he also has learned how to prioritize his varying responsibilities.

“I’ve been working in nonprofits for 30 years and there’s definitely times where you feel it. Sometimes we’re going to have to work an incredible number of hours for a special fundraising event or to open up our waterpark for camp,” he said. “But you can’t sustain that on an ongoing basis.”

Using advice he read in Great at Work: How Top Performers Do Less, Work Better, and Achieve More, Koehler periodically assesses his schedule to make sure that he’s prioritizing the areas that will move the JCC Indianapolis’ mission forward.

“Sometimes it’s very rewarding to check off the quick things that actually don’t move you or your organization forward. It can be satisfying to say that it’s off my list,” Koehler said. “But it’s more important to focus on the things that I’m doing to move my organization and myself, professionally, forward.”

Sep 19

3 challenges a strategic planning process can solve amid financial uncertainty

By Sponsor Insight

How nonprofits can position themselves for success as the pandemic subsides

Alexis Kollay D’Ettorre, consultant, Hedges

Is anyone else feeling a bit of déjà vu after hearing ongoing news reports of an impending recession? You too? It feels as though we just finished with a recession … because we did.

The greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression, The Great Recession, took place from 2007 to 2009, and was marked by financial decline worldwide. From a global economic standpoint, identifying causes of The Great Recession can help us avoid similar events … or to recover more quickly if we do. That approach could be especially helpful given that economy experts predict a continued financial slump and possibly another recession.

The good news is that nonprofits can learn from our experiences rebounding from The Great Recession too. Having experienced that financial decline, funders’ responses to crisis, and surviving the worst of the pandemic, how will nonprofits use that knowledge to not just survive but sustain and thrive?

A Nonprofit Quarterly study of nonprofit funding trends following The Great Recession illuminates potential trends as we navigate this economic downturn with no clear end date. While the rate of nonprofit closure was 13.5 percent during the peak of the recession (2008-2010), the rate was only 3.3 percent higher than it was two years prior and only 5.3 percent higher than it was the two years after. And, because new organizations were launched just as often as they were closed, the number of nonprofits remained relatively steady before, during, and after the recession. This study also found that the most stable organizations during The Great Recession were human service organizations. They experienced the lowest rate of closure and the smallest losses overall. Seems promising, right?

But it’s also important to consider that, on average, Great Recession recovery time for nonprofits lasted about five years, from 2010 to 2015. According to nonprofit fundraising software expert Classy, recessions last 15 months on average. In today’s terms, considering 2020 to be the start of the economic downturn, we’re potentially looking at being in recovery mode through 2027. If we want to be part of the 86.5 percent of nonprofits that weather the recession, clear well-thought-out goals, and actions to carry us through to stability are exactly where to start.

Until a decade ago, Hedges primarily provided grants-related services, but as we saw funders begin to show a deepened interest in nonprofits with active strategic plans, we established a service line dedicated to the inclusive, community research-based strategic planning processes that funders and organizations alike were calling for. Today, we’re seeing this need remain as strong as it was then, maybe even stronger. Whether an organization has a strategic plan is still one of funders’ most frequently asked questions.

When inching our way out of the pandemic, a meaningful strategic plan is an extremely effective springboard toward greater strength. On one hand, some nonprofits experienced significant funding gaps during the pandemic that have left them struggling to remain stable. On the other hand, other nonprofits were grateful to receive a healthy number of unexpected gifts as a reaction to the limited finances nonprofits then faced and the higher need for nonprofit services. But, as we begin to leave behind pandemic-bound operations and related funds have gone by the wayside, how will we re-establish financial security in this new climate? Here are three challenges an effective strategic planning process can solve for nonprofits amid the economic uncertainty we’re facing.

Challenge #1: Not being financially prepared

As the time in which many funders granted nonprofits unrestricted pandemic-related funds to address any need ends, it’s still unclear if funders will return to their pre-pandemic gift restrictions, including requiring that nonprofits fully align with their own priorities. But, so far, that seems to be the trend.

Large U.S. foundation funding increased from 2020 to 2021, but COVID-19-specific funding dropped 31 percent between the same fiscal years. Additionally, corporate foundation funding dropped even more drastically, by a rate of 76 percent. While foundations and corporations continue to give, it can be assumed that the unrestricted funding of the most difficult pandemic years will continue to decline.

Understanding what questions funders are asking now is a solid starting point for preparing your organization to manage financial instability. Many of the trending questions we are seeing benefit nonprofits greatly (and, subsequently, the participants who seek their services) include:

  • Describe your efforts to incorporate DEI into your organization’s work as well as your action plan for addressing your DEI limitations. Of course, this concept was coming into focus well before the pandemic, but as the COVID-19 crisis exposed how acutely present disparities in healthcare, education, and opportunities of all kinds are for people of color, funders and organizations alike are no longer able to place this issue on the backburner. Change must happen now.
  • How will your organization sustain this effort after funding has ended? This is a fairly common question, but it’s more important now than ever. This is your chance to feature the ways you were able to weather the pandemic storm and therefore be resilient and better equipped for continued bad financial weather. Strategic plans play a substantial part in an organization’s sustainability. When we set goals and keep our attention focused on them, we don’t stray toward flashy and potentially unbeneficial opportunities. We build strength and consistency leading to long-term sustainability.
  • Tell us how your initiative is innovative. Highlight your efforts to shift practices amid the pandemic to address community needs and then shift back s (i.e., how nimble is your nonprofit, which may predict your continued ability to sustain during the ongoing financial crisis).

As a part of your strategic plan, be sure to address the critical issue of maintaining funder cultivation and stewardship. While this is Fundraising 101 outside of financial insecurity, it’s easy to set aside relationship development when fires are blazing around us. However, nonprofits that don’t maintain communication and relationship with their individual, corporate, and foundation funders in times of challenge will lose their attention to other organizations who prioritize remaining top of mind.

“Trust, security, and stability” are three key factors Classy describes as essential to retaining and engaging donors in a pandemic and post-pandemic environment. Even as individuals reduce their amount of giving to nonprofits, they will still find a way to give to organizations that they trust. In other words, organizations that continually communicate with them, offer secure and streamlined donation methods, and show stability amid the crisis will earn their trust.

A strategic plan not only speaks volumes for your longevity and vision for the future, but it creates a set of instructions for how you’ll obtain and/or maintain stability. We learned earlier that recessions last about 15 months, and recovery time afterward is about 5 years. It would be wise to set financial goals for the coming three to five years which is, coincidentally, the typical timeframe of a strategic plan, and even beyond.

Challenge #2: Impulsively returning to pre-pandemic methodology

We’ve heard it said in countless ways: The COVID-19 pandemic brought our world to a screeching halt and then turned it upside down. While we’re grateful to have the worst of the pandemic in the rearview mirror, we’re still managing the after-effects, including a struggling economy. It’s safe to say that we will be for some time. Nonprofits shifted their practices in record time to continue their work in a tremendously challenging time. In many cases, organizations changed their methods of implementing existing programs and, in other cases, many established new programs to meet new needs. Regardless of whether organizations wanted to make those changes or not, we’re now faced with identifying how well those changes served us during the pandemic and now, as we move out of the pandemic.

With little certainty about what turn our economy will take next, it is critical that nonprofits analyze how they provided services before and during the pandemic. That analysis can help them determine how they can most effectively meet participant needs in the future. The sooner this is determined, the sooner organizations can operationalize their methodology and stabilize funding sources to match that need.

Holy Family Shelter is an excellent example of commitment to evaluating their service methods before, during, and while recovering from the pandemic, to identify ideal next steps. A program of Catholic Charities Indianapolis, Holy Family Shelter operates as an emergency shelter specifically for families, regardless of religious affiliation, serving as a safe refuge for those facing homelessness and supporting them as they seek permanent housing and self-sufficiency.

When facing the pandemic, Holy Family Shelter was forced to temporarily limit on-site sheltering for those experiencing homelessness since their facility includes congregated communal eating and bathroom spaces. If Holy Family Shelter were to simply stop serving clients because of their facility limitations, more than 750 individuals could be without housing and a long-term support system to meet their self-sufficiency goals. Rather than simply stop partnering with those seeking their services, Holy Family Shelter leaned into what was once a much smaller-scale transitional housing program and worked with existing landlords to ensure clients could remain in their spaces.

They also diverted them to hotels and other safe, temporary alternative housing when no other options were available. Meeting basic needs and providing intensive case management services and long-term support toward permanent housing and self-sufficiency remained a critical component of Holy Family Shelter’s partnership with clients, even in this non-traditional service model, because much of it could be done virtually.

Even as the pandemic-related restrictions were lifted, Holy Family Shelter staff members analyzed their pre- and mid-pandemic methods and determined that they can serve far more clients by continuing to use their new methods than they could before, while beginning to re-integrate on-site housing as well. As a result, what came to be known as the Sustain, Support, and Divert program became a central approach. While these major changes certainly required a significant operational adjustment, returning to pre-pandemic programming practices would simply diminish the impact they could have.

Holy Family Shelter’s experience is a prime example of why strategic planning is so critical. Rather than continue along the same path we always have, strategic planning processes allow us to ask critical, and sometimes tough, questions about why and how we do what we do as well as set a realistic plan for operationalizing new methods. And, when new operations, methods, and funding are required, a strategic planning process gives us dedicated time to set goals and related actions that will progressively move us toward our end point.

As you embark on a strategic planning process and evaluate former and current programming, you might ask yourself questions like:

  • What has changed for our participants since the pandemic began?
  • What will never return to how it was before the pandemic (for example, increased use of digital methods, increased knowledge of race/ethnicity-based disparities)?
  • Can our pre-pandemic methods still meet participants’ needs in this new climate?
  • What methods did we shift toward amid the pandemic that have worked well for our participants?
  • Are there programs we implemented before the pandemic that are no longer as relevant? Would other methods be better to solve those issues now?

Challenge #3: Operating in a vacuum

One of the most critical elements of a successful strategic plan is that it’s well-informed by a variety of voices and ample data. Through a community research-based strategic planning process, organizations will hear from stakeholders about what they need to change, and funders will be able to view the organization as sustainable beyond the pandemic. This introspection should be inclusive of both internal and external research.

Internal research will involve taking a close look at your strengths, challenges, and opportunities. It also will provide insights about what are you doing well, what hazards may come in your way (such as shifting funder priorities), and what exciting prospects are on the horizon (such as a sector-wide shift toward virtual services seen during the pandemic)? It’s also important to include your own staff and board. After all, these are the internal crew members who see your work, day in and day out. When invited to share anonymous and authentic feedback, we see crews impart their passion for the cause, the brilliant ideas they’ve been waiting to share, and constructive methods for improving overall organizational success.

This is where welcoming in an external entity to lead your strategic planning process is so important. As my colleague Hannah Gooding shared, a third-party facilitator provides “the necessary neutrality to collect real information.” Someone not currently close to your organization can serve as a “buffer,” making it possible to obtain honest feedback and share it in a productive way.

This comes into play just as much for external data collection. We must take time to ask intentional questions and gather information from sources we don’t connect with every day. External data collection may include surveying and speaking with clients, families of clients, volunteers, partner organizations, funders, donors, and more. You might also consider looking into the practices of similar organizations and gathering current data on best practices in your field.

Summing it up

If we were to magically jump ahead five years and you had made no changes to your nonprofit’s current operations, what would your reflections be? Would your existing finances and fundraising efforts have sustained you? Would your programs remain relevant if you made no changes to their implementation? Would you have all the information needed to address the true needs in our community?

Of course, as we’ve learned through a global pandemic and looming recession, we can’t possibly predict all conditions that would help answer these questions. But gathering data, making predictions, and implementing a plan that prepares our organizations for greater security, sustainability, and impact for years to come will leave us in an incredibly powerful position despite economic turbulence.

Alexis Kollay D’Ettorre has more than 15 years of experience serving dozens of nonprofits. Her passion for people contributes to strong partnerships with organizations across Central Indiana and beyond as they grow their capacity.

Feb 21

Strategic planning enabled food bank to readily expand operations during pandemic

By Feature

Retiring Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana CEO John Elliott reflects on his tenure

by Shari Finnell, editor/writer, Not-for-profit News

Note: Listen to the full interview with Gleaners’ John Elliott, who talks about strategic planning and provides advice for other nonprofits as they plan for upcoming years.

By any definition, Gleaners Food Bank of Indiana faced a nightmarish situation during the early months of the pandemic in 2020. While demand for food surged to unprecedented numbers, the organization’s typical sources of donations — particularly those from grocery stores — plunged to zero, recalled President and CEO John Elliott, who recently announced his retirement. At the same time, the food bank’s volunteer force dwindled in the face of lockdown orders and the uncertainty around the deadly disease.

Faced with similar daunting circumstances, many food banks temporarily or permanently closed their doors. In New York City, for instance, 39 percent of food banks were closed during the height of the pandemic.

An ambitious strategic plan that had been developed years prior to the pandemic allowed Gleaners to not only keep its doors open but serve 103 million nutritious meals in 2020 — up from 20 million in 2016, said Elliott, who plans to hand over the leadership reins to his successor in September.

“Strategy is absolutely our roadmap,” Elliott said. “We started our strategic plan in February 2019. At that time, we began a lot of change and growth planning, and set a goal of closing the meal gap and keeping it closed. That meant, after 2019, we would need to do 2 ½ that year’s food distribution, sustain it and do it in the right way.”
Along the way, the team also focused on significantly increasing efficiency.

“We did not expect to get 2 ½ times the donations that people have historically given us so we did dozens of things to improve our efficiency,” Elliott said. “We went from 41 cents a meal when I got here to 12 cents a meal last year. There wasn’t one magic thing that led to that, but dozens of dozens of things across the entire organization.

“After about nine months of the pandemic, we didn’t update that strategic plan,” he added. We found ourselves, in a sort of an intriguing way, checking off 2023 strategic plan goals early.”

With the implementation and acceleration of the strategic plan, Elliott said the food bank has undergone a permanent transformation.

“You cannot quintuple your distribution, while simultaneously have dramatically improved the nutritional quality and unprecedented variety of foods,” he said. “We have absolutely left behind the old food banking model of passively waiting to see what loose cans and boxes people choose to donate and then that’s what we distribute. We’ve proactively even maybe aggressively gone after financial resources to shop for food at the lowest cost and at the best nutritional variety we can try to create for the families we’re privileged to serve.”

A renewed focus on employees

Human resources was another key focus of Gleaner’s strategic plan — which also significantly paid off when faced with the challenges of the past two years, Elliott noted.

“We invested in our people,” he said. “We redefined every job, every role in the organization and some of the more impactful ones when the pandemic came along.”

As part of that plan, program staff members served as local service managers of assigned geographies, Elliott said.

“They were out in the field, interacting and working with our partners, understanding the neighborhoods, understanding the counties, and knowing exactly what they needed from us to succeed — not confined by historically what we had done for them or with them. But what did they actually need to do their part of closing the meal gap in their area, providing wraparound interconnected solutions.”

Since that work started in 2019, the team was better prepared to meet the needs of the community. “By the time the pandemic hit in early 2020, we already were equipped with that information. Also, if we had not moved to this current location with this facility in 2010, we absolutely could not have handled the pandemic response. We might very well have done what happened at some food banks and many food pantries around the country, which was temporary shutdowns, limiting our response, and running out of food distributions. But that didn’t happen. We were able to handle it because we were already on a growth and change trajectory.”

As part of the strategic plan, employees were evaluated to ensure they were in the right positions. The organization also hired new employees who would be equipped to handle demands well into the future — not simply fulfill the duties of the previous employees, Elliott said.

“In many ways, we started from an organization that was financially at risk in 2016 to one that is very stable and solid now. It was a financial journey. That financial journey began with my doubling the fundraising team when I got here and, much like corporations will use a dramatic increase in sales to turn the company around, we used a dramatic increase in fundraising to give us the resources to do all of the other things.”

Lilly Endowment, Inc., and other organizations provided the funds needed to expand its team, Elliott noted. “But, from there, we had to earn our own way.”

Looking to the future

Elliott noted that some nonprofits could be shortchanging themselves by focusing on challenges instead of future-setting goals.

“If you have a mindset as a nonprofit that, ‘Well, we’re short-staffed,’ or ‘We don’t have enough funding,’ you can diminish what you get versus if you’re more optimistic and project a vision your stakeholders see, hear and respond to.”

By establishing a vision that Gleaners needed to run at 2 ½ to 3 times the distribution it had in 2019, the food bank was equipped to handle even more under pressure, he said. “Now, we know we can do it in normal times.”

Feb 21

Employee retention tax credit: Refund potential for organizations big and small

By Sponsor Insight

by Ryan Lauer, author, Barnes Dennig

Passed as part of the CARES Act at the onset of COVID-19 in the spring of 2020, the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) Program, in very simple terms, is a credit for continuing to pay employees during the pandemic if certain tests are met.

While the name suggests it’s related to tax, it’s an actual cash refund if you qualify. The credit is driven off of headcount and can add up to a significant sum depending on your total headcount and payroll. It can add up quickly, even for small organizations, as the credit could be up to $5,000 per employee in calendar year 2020 and up to $21,000 per employee in calendar year 2021. If your organization experienced either a gross receipts decline or more than a nominal portion of your business was suspended in 2020 or 2021 because of a government order, you may qualify.

The ERTC did not garner the media attention the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) did when the CARES Act first went into effect because, at that time, businesses and organizations were only allowed to pursue one program – and the vast majority chose the PPP route. However, the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAA) passed in late 2020 reversed course and allowed taxpayers to pursue ERTC even if they took a PPP loan. Overnight, the number of organizations that could qualify exploded and has resulted in significant cash refunds for thousands of organizations.

The ERTC program is in place for wages paid between March 13, 2020, and Sept. 30, 2021. President Biden signed the Infrastructure Innovation and Jobs Act back in November 2021, sunsetting the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) program one quarter early (with some exceptions for recovery startups). This early “cut-off” eliminated the 4th quarter of 2021 as a qualifying quarter for the credit – but it doesn’t preclude taxpayers from still claiming the credit for prior eligible quarters.

Qualification: Gross receipts method

To qualify under the gross receipts method, your organization must have experienced a 50% decline in gross receipts during a calendar quarter in 2020 as compared to the same calendar quarter in 2019. To quality in 2021, the threshold is lowered to only a 20% decline in gross receipts as compared to the same calendar quarter in 2019. PPP loan proceeds (when received or when forgiven) are not included as a gross receipt for purposes of this test. While the 50% decline to qualify in 2020 is a steep mark to hit, the reduction to 20% in 2021 results in many more organizations qualifying for the credit. Having said that, the gross receipts method is not the only way to qualify for the credit.

Qualification: Government suspension of operations/partial suspension

Didn’t meet the gross receipts decline test or have a full business shutdown as a result of a government order? There’s still a chance organizations that operated as essential businesses could qualify for the Employee Retention Tax Credit. To qualify under a partial government shutdown, a business unit or program that comprised at least 10% of the gross receipts in the same quarter in 2019 and was suspended from operations (as a result of a COVID-19 government shutdown order), would qualify the entire organization.

For example, if Business Unit A (or Program A) was shut down for a period of time at the onset of COVID-19, and the unit generated 15% of 2nd Quarter revenue in 2019, that could potentially qualify the overall business for the ERTC during the 2020 shutdown period.

Furthermore, in this example, it’s not only Business Unit A that has qualifying wages for the credit: all wages of all business units of the company would qualify during this period of time. Thus, as long as a nominal portion (10%) of the business was suspended, it could be enough to qualify the whole business for the credit.

Eligible wages

Wages that are eligible to be utilized for the credit include W-2 gross wages, pre-tax employee paid health insurance premiums and employer-side paid health insurance premiums. One caveat to keep in mind – wages utilized for PPP forgiveness, or any other credit, cannot also be utilized as qualifying wages for the Employee Retention Tax Credit. Having said that, organizations that received PPP proceeds are still seeing sizeable refunds on the ERTC side, so taking a PPP loan isn’t a reason to not consider the ERTC.

Other considerations

The Employee Retention Tax Credit is a taxable credit. The funding is taxable in the year the wages were paid and could require an amended tax return for taxable legal entities. However, non-profits will not have tax burden related to the credit and may not need to amend their 990s for this.

The ERTC is claimed on an amended quarterly payroll tax return (Form 941X). Once the IRS processes Form 941X, a check is issued to the taxpayer for the credit amount, plus interest. The statute of limitations for filing amended payroll tax returns is three years from the due date of the return, meaning to apply for the Employee Retention Tax Credit for the 2nd quarter of 2020, the amended return needs to be submitted by July 2023. Therefore, there’s still time to apply for the credit.

Find out if you qualify

The Employee Retention Tax Credit can be a massive opportunity if your organization qualifies. With the potential credit up to $5,000 per employee in calendar year 2020 and up to $21,000 per employee in calendar year 2021, organizations both big and small could greatly benefit from applying for the credit.

If you have questions about the qualification process, or want to know if your organization can benefit from the Employee Retention Tax Credit, talk to a member of the Barnes Dennig non-profit team today.

Jan 10

Empowering nonprofit employees can lead to much needed innovative solutions in 2022

By Feature

CICOA’s CEO Tauhric Brown

by Shari Finnell, editor/writer, Not-for-profit News

When Tauhric Brown took on the role of president and CEO of CICOA Aging & In-Home Solutions in January of 2020, a top goal on his agenda was the empowerment of the organization’s employees to dream and innovate.

Based on his previous experiences in a combination of for-profit and nonprofit roles, Brown said, he knew that would be one of the most strategic approaches to continue successfully fulfilling CICOA’s overall mission — making the dream of aging in place a reality for many older adults.

Brown acknowledged the challenges that faced him. Even in normal times, it can be difficult to inspire employees to envision how to do things differently. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, further challenges developed as the organization followed stay-at-home orders and remote work schedules

“Many of us have tunnel vision. We see our work, day in and day out, and that’s really all we see,” Brown said.

However, opportunities can develop when leaders are able to help employees develop peripheral vision — recognizing the ways in which their individual roles, such as what a person does as a care manager, impacts the entire organization, Brown said..

“You really have to unlock that potential that lies well inside of each and every one of us,” he said.

As a result of that innovative focus on problem-solving, CICOA launched an innovation studio in 2021, an intrapreneurship model to encourage staff and partners to ideate, prototype and launch new solutions to meet the needs of older adults, people with disabilities and their caregivers.

One of the first products of the CICOA Venture Studio was the development of Duett, a for-profit start-up organization with a mission to streamline the process of matching people with service providers through technology solutions.

Innovation as an ongoing model

Now that the COVID-19 pandemic is approaching its two-year mark in Central Indiana, it is even more critical to challenge nonprofit employees to discover new solutions, according to Brown, who anticipates that few nonprofits will be able to continue to be successful without incorporating changes that can equip them for long-term sustainability.

He began the process of introducing innovation early on. “When I first started in my role here in January of 2020, I just started having conversations with people,” Brown recalled. “It wasn’t the CEO talking to the care manager. It was just Tauhric to Sherri — getting to know people on a personal level, and then really challenging them to see their work differently.”

Conversations included looking at goals and determining creative ways to respond, Brown said. “How do we begin to develop some additional programs or social enterprise concepts that might help us for decades to come?,” he said. “In other words, not just for this scenario, but for a more efficient, effectively run nonprofit organization that benefits the consumers you serve for years?”

Problem-solving also could involve determining how to deliver more services with fewer resources.

“For us, that was the primary opportunity we saw — and have been capitalizing on pre-COVID because innovation is part of our culture, part of our DNA,” he said. “That spirit existed here pre-COVID.”

In some ways, the pandemic fueled interest in generating problem-solving and innovative ideas, Brown noted.

Since implementing the innovation studio, Brown said, an increasing number of employees have been actively proposing potential solutions for challenges the organization faced during the pandemic, which forced many organizations to do things differently.

“We’re starting to see more staff bringing additional ideas and concepts forward that may not have been presented without this public health emergency,” he said. “Some of those ideas are now being teased out as potential social enterprise concepts that we can take to market down the road.”

Nov 22

Financially preparing and protecting for today, tomorrow, and the years to come

By Sponsor Insight

by Sandy McCarthy, president, Retirement Services, OneAmerica

As professionals in the financial services industry, we’ve devoted our careers to helping individuals attain financial peace of mind, personal protection, and retirement security.

The pandemic, though, has cast this important work in a new light, invigorating Americans’ interests in all aspects of financial preparedness and personal protection, and highlighting the deep connections between financial, physical, and emotional wellness.

This is a pivotal moment for our industry and the Americans we serve, as we guide those who have just experienced, first-hand, the complex and unexpected path life can take. In this new environment, widening the lens and broadening the view on the traditional idea of financial wellness can help Americans feel prepared and protected for today, tomorrow, and the years to come — whatever those days and years may bring.

Retirement and personal protection strategies go hand-in-hand

As a longtime veteran of the financial services industry, I’ve seen first-hand the energy we’ve collectively spent educating retirement plan participants about market risk, asset allocation, and the importance of beginning deferrals early. Though these are, of course, critical elements, there’s more that’s needed to help individuals establish peace-of-mind about their financial security.

As an industry, we must guide individual workers, and their employers, to look beyond the retirement plan — to realize that true, comprehensive plans for financial wellness also incorporate personal protection and decumulation strategies. This is especially critical and relevant post-COVID, as the pandemic forced the idea of financial protection for loved ones, and our own mortality, to be top of mind in a way we haven’t seen previously.

As uncertainties abound, the products and strategies we provide are a port in the storm — allowing individuals to safeguard retirement savings, set aside money for health or longterm care expenses, or ensure loved ones are protected. And the focus on healthcare expenses, in addition to retirement funds, is one that can’t be overlooked.

According to HealthView Services, a 65-year-old couple in good health will need $387,644 to pay for healthcare costs for the remainder of their lives. And the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reports that someone turning age 65 today has almost a 70 percent chance of needing some type of long-term care services and support in their remaining years.

Still, according to a survey from the American College of Financial Services, only about one third of retirees currently have any type of long-term care plan.

Widening the lens on financial wellness

In recent years, we have honed in on examining the critical role emotional and physical wellness play in holistic financial wellness. Financial stress can cause emotional or physical health issues, just as emotional or physical health issues can result in financial strain and resulting stress. These factors are important considerations, especially as our industry navigates how best to engage and educate American workers to take action toward overall financial wellness. We have an opportunity to meet each person where they are, and to help American workers take the next step in their personal wellness journeys — acknowledging and aligned with their individual circumstances or life events. According to Employee Benefit Research Institute’s 2020 Retirement Confidence Survey, 7 in 10 workers (69 percent) feel confident in their ability to retire comfortably, though only 27 percent feel very confident. Overall confidence is up slightly from 2018 and 2019, when the survey showed 64 percent and 67 percent. We’re collectively making progress, but there’s still work to be done.

Connecting where it counts

For many Americans, the workplace is the frontline for financial education, and it may even be one of the only places where individuals receive financial guidance. As an industry, it’s up to us to help employers understand the value of providing employees with opportunities to improve holistic financial wellness — both for the well-being of individual employees, and to meet company objectives. Employees who are less stressed about financial, physical, and emotional health are more focused, present, and able to contribute to business success.

This is a significant concept, considering data from the 2021 PwC Employee Financial Wellness Survey showing that nearly two thirds of full-time employees say their financial stress has increased since the start of the pandemic. This has an impact on both productivity and retention, with 45 percent saying finances have been a distraction at work and 72 percent indicating they would be attracted to another company that cares more about their financial well-being than their current company.

The promising news is that employers understand the important role they play; 62 percent of employers feel “extremely” responsible for their employees’ financial wellness, up significantly from 13 percent in 2013, according to Bank of America’s 2020 Workplace Benefits Report. Employers — along with the financial professionals who guide them — will continue to play an increasingly greater role in helping employees strengthen their financial foundations.

Our industry exists for times like these, and our purpose — to protect and secure — has only been emphasized and reaffirmed over the past 18 months.
We’re an industry connected to the people we serve, and it’s an honor to engage with a wide network of professionals committed to bettering the lives of individuals and their families.

Editor’s note: A version of this article was originally published in LIMRA Marketfacts #4, 2021.

Oct 25

Spirit & Place Festival welcomes a public conversation about a year that changed everything

By Feature

by Shari Finnell, editor/writer, Not-for-profit News

Conversations about challenging topics can be incredibly uncomfortable, whether they’re about race relations, gender identity, pay equity, the removal of 100-year-old Confederate monuments, social justice protests or COVID-19 vaccine shots. 

When faced with the many challenges in 2020, Indianapolis residents had the opportunity to engage in many uncomfortable conversations. Some did. Some didn’t. The 2021 Spirit & Place Festival wants to highlight the need for ongoing conversation by encouraging a public discourse on some of those topics. 

The festival, which is now in its 26th year, has rolled out an agenda that revolves around the theme of CHANGE, encouraging the public to reflect and engage in conversations about how 2020 brought about change and envision the steps needed for further change.

The 11-day festival of events, which runs from Nov. 4-14, includes an exhibition and a panel discussion called Monumental Changes: History and Power in Public Art from 6-9 p.m. on Nov. 5. During that discussion, which will be held at the Garfield Park Arts Center, panelists will provide perspectives on the history, controversy and June 2020 removal of a Confederate monument in Garfield Park on the city’s Southside.

Jordan Ryan, a historian, archivist and scholar, who is among the panelists, noted that the monument was dismantled and removed without community discussion — leaving a gap in residents’ ability to have their voices heard. The Spirit & Place Festival panel discussion will provide one of those opportunities, Ryan said.

“We never had a community conversation when the statue was taken down … a public conversation,” said Ryan, noting that some other cities had public forums before statues were removed. “This represents the first time the public can come together and have that discussion.”

Ryan acknowledged that it can be uncomfortable to engage in this type of discussion. However, it’s needed, she said.

“It will be uncomfortable, but that’s how we grow,” Ryan said.

In addition to Ryan, the Monumental Changes panelists include Dr. Paul Mullins, who has studied the history of the monument placement in Garfield Park, and Danicia Monét, an artist, researcher and urban planner. 

The Indianapolis discussion follows the National Monument Lab’s recent release of the National Monument Audit, a comprehensive look at the characteristics of the nation’s collection of monuments, most of which are overwhelmingly of white males.

A history of inspiring community engagement

As in previous years, community engagement was key to developing the theme of CHANGE for the festival, which is now in its 26th year, according to Erin Kelley, Spirit & Place program director.

“We have had different themes for every year,” she recalled. “We had previously set a theme but halfway through 2020, we knew that wasn’t going to resonate. We went out into the community, getting feedback through social media, emails, and by contacting event partners. We asked, ‘What is resonating with you right now?’ And the concept of ‘change’ rose to the top. That’s the one theme that people gravitated to.”

Kelley said that this year’s event will include a mix of in-person, virtual, and hybrid offerings — a model that will continue for future festivals. As a result of the pandemic, Kelley said, Spirit & Place has recognized the demand for a mix of options for people who work different hours, or have parental responsibilities that interfere with their ability to participate in person. 

As part of the opening night event, local spoken word artist Manon Voice, will serve as emcee and jazz pianist Christopher Pitts will perform a newly commissioned piano piece.

And, as with the Monumental Changes panel discussion, other Spirit & Place events will encourage public conversations on challenging topics, including the following:

  • Tearing Down Boxes and Embracing Change: Nov. 5, 5:30-8:30 p.m., at the Phoenix Theater Cultural Center — Fiber artists will discuss art as a vehicle for healing and growth, and will inspire attendees to break out of their boxes — whether its religious affiliations, circle of friends and social groups — to broaden their perspectives.
  • (Un)Comfortable Conversations: Telling Our Stories, Transforming Our World: Nov. 8, noon-1:30 p.m., virtual event — Spoken word artists, writers, and community leaders will discuss what it means to wrestle with and accept the consequences of change.
  • Be Anxious for Nothing: Loss and Joy in Unexpected Change: Nov. 8, 7-8 p.m., Christ Church Cathedral, hybrid event — A discussion about what the Bible, Torah, Qur’an, and sacred music say about change.

“We want folks to come out and have these conversations,” Kelley said. “It’s uncomfortable, hard and scary work. But we need to enter into brave spaces together and do this.”

For more information about the 2021 Spirit and Place Festival, visit the event lineup.

Sep 20

Participant Wellness in the Era of COVID-19 and the Effect on Nonprofits

By Sponsor Insight

by Kevin Kidwell, vice president, tax-exempt sales, OneAmerica

One unavoidable fact is how the pandemic divided people into two groups. The first group are financially stable and held onto their jobs during the pandemic. They have avoided spending money and were able to increase their savings effort. In fact, the U.S. personal savings rate hit a record high of 33% in April 2020, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis.1

The second group didn’t fare as well. According to an Employee Benefit Research Institute survey, roughly one in 10 participants have taken a loan, hardship distribution or early withdrawal from their workplace retirement plan during 2020.2 Unfortunately, many more individuals didn’t have the benefit of this safety net, with a quarter of adults without a retirement plan according to a Federal Reserve report.3

This has had a great impact on our communities and the nonprofits that have served them. Need has increased, while the ability to provide services has changed or dramatically reduced.

While this sounds like bad news, we are optimistic because historical perspective of the 2008 recession shows the cyclical nature of our economy and how nonprofits recover.4

Short-Term Consequences

The economic effects of the pandemic forced nonprofits to cut more than 50,000 jobs in December 2020, according to a report from Johns Hopkins University, and it could take 18 months for nonprofits’ employment numbers to return to pre-pandemic levels, per ABC News.5

However, several of our clients have made great strides to ensure their nonprofit employees will continue to keep their jobs at least until the end of the year.

This economic impact of the COVID-19 outbreak will make it harder for some employees to achieve their short-term financial goals putting their long-term financial goals at risk.

Among those employees who say their financial situation has gotten worse during the pandemic, 44% believe it will take them three years or more to get back to where they were a year ago — including about one in 10 who don’t think their finances will ever recover.6

This year, 32% of nonprofit employees expect their employers to reduce program offerings and have hiring freezes, 23% expect pay cuts, 20%, layoffs and 17%, furloughs according to Eagle Hill Consulting, who polled over 500 nonprofit employees across the United States.7

Holistic Financial Wellness

Although we’re confident in the economic healing of nonprofits, many organizations will continue to experience impacts of the pandemic for some time.

There are steps nonprofits can take to support their own employees through continuing change, both now and as they stabilize in the future. Financial wellness will be increasingly important, and as the need for financial recovery will be great for some time, employers need to recognize their role in helping their employees achieve this.

For any organization, this starts by offering and reinforcing employees the basics:

  • Retirement plans
  • Competitive health insurance
  • Paid time off
  • Flexible spending or health savings accounts
  • Financial wellness education

These programs are important for overall employee productivity, health care costs and talent retention. In the 2021 Employee Financial Wellness Survey, PwC reported that of those whose financial stress increased as a result of the pandemic, 45% felt their financial situation had been a distraction at work. Taking this one step further, nearly three-quarters of employees experiencing financial stress also experience physical symptoms, which affects a businesses’ bottom line. People with financial stress tend to avoid getting health care, which could lead to worse health outcomes and higher health care costs later.8

Invest in Financial Education

In addition, by providing access to financial wellness education employers can also help their employees focus on specific goals, such as setting up an emergency fund, paying back retirement loans, reducing debt, and creating a realistic budget. This goes a long way in helping employees start to become more stable and regain confidence in their ability to get back on and stay on track.

By boosting employee financial confidence and offering support, you can have a positive impact on health care costs, retention, and productivity — ultimately making your organization stronger and healthier, too.

In Kevin Kidwell’s role as vice president of national tax-exempt sales, he works to provide ideas, knowledge, information – both technical and practical – in an effort to facilitate improved plan and participant outcomes. Kidwell has held various positions within the Retirement Services division since 1988. Beginning in 2000, his exclusive focus has been on health care and tax-exempt organizations.

  1. Pew Research Survey: Economic Fallout from Covid-19 Continues to hit Lower Income Americans the Hardest
  2. Federal Reserve System Report: Report on the Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2019, Featuring Supplemental Data from April 2020
  3. Pew Research Survey: A Year Into the Pandemic, Long-Term Financial Impact Weighs Heavily on Many Americans
  4. Nonprofit Quarterly: Deconstructing the (Not-So-Great) Nonprofit Recession
  5. ABC News: Study: Nonprofits lost 50,000 jobs last month from virus
  6. Pew Research Survey: A Year Into the Pandemic, Long-Term Financial Impact Weighs Heavily on Many Americans
  7. The Business Journals: Despite increases in charitable donations, half of nonprofit employees expect cuts in 2021
  8. PwC’s 10th annual Employee Financial Wellness Survey, PwC US, 2021

About OneAmerica®
A national provider of insurance and financial services for more than 140 years, the companies of OneAmerica help customers build and protect their financial futures. OneAmerica offers a variety of products and services to serve the financial needs of their policyholders and customers. These products include retirement plan products and recordkeeping services, individual life insurance, annuities, asset-based long-term care solutions and employee benefit plan products.

Products are issued and underwritten by the companies of OneAmerica and distributed through a nationwide network of employees, agents, brokers and other sources that are committed to providing value to our customers. To learn more about our products, services and the companies of OneAmerica, visit
OneAmerica.com/companies.