The pandemic is over but nonprofits face new challenges.
“I don’t think nonprofits have fully recovered from the pandemic because they have been hit with another type of challenge,” said Frank Ridzi, vice president of community investment for the Central New York Community Foundation. “There has been a lack of federal funding in many areas. Things that organizations have relied on are changing. It’s kind of a new type of problem for them. Their funding gets cut; then it isn’t and then it is.”
Nonprofits are struggling with how to keep serving, how to keep in business in this climate, he added.
“Nonprofits continue to see an increased request for services at a time when a negative shift in funding streams on the federal level have been felt,” added Patrick Dewine, executive director, Greater Oswego County United Way. “As we have seen in the past year, these services will continue to be limited or become non existent. This adds extra pressure on nonprofits who are already doing their best to meet the basic needs of our vulnerable populations.”
The pandemic affected a lot of arts organizations, Ridzi said.
“I think they’re still struggling to get people back out. People tended to stay in their homes during the pandemic. It affected the performing arts quite a bit,” he said. “I think they’re still struggling to win back their audiences.
“But the human services groups were called on to be on high alert back then during the pandemic. They were helping with basic needs, food and things like that. They have now kind of hit new tumultuous waters in the context of executive orders. The funding sources that they rely on are not as plentiful now.”
The food groups that during the pandemic had so much and were trying to get it all out make sure everybody got help — that has dried up. The government is a big part of their funds, a very big part of that. Providing food to people through things like SNAP is in jeopardy.
“With the pandemic you could see it coming. This is rough water causing a lot of issues,” Ridzi said. “The lack of long relied-upon sources of federal funding is creating problems. Nonprofits really have to be on their toes trying to figure out how to connect and survive this change. It’s a big change in how things get done.”
Central New York Community Foundation has started doing state-of-the community listening sessions.
“We invited members of the community in, we go to other events, block parties and things like that. We let people talk about what are the issues in the community. We are doing that to prioritize our grantmaking,” he explained. “So what happens is those priorities that arise people vote and elevate things to the top of our priorities. We start collecting data on that. We have a network of nonprofits that we work with in a five-county area. The data we collect influences our grantmaking. We are becoming much more in touch with the community needs.”
They are waiting to see what a Trump administration budget looks like.
“We really don’t have a sense of what the future is going to look like yet. You look at the weather forecast and try to plan. That is kind of the situation we have now, but we don’t have all the information,” he said. “With the pandemic it was very clear, these are the things we need to do. Now things aren’t as clear.” (SY)
