Last year I wrote about National Nonprofit Day and how Fore Her, (a nonprofit I founded), was my passion. I also wrote about how there are many other great nonprofits that any reader can contribute to and suggested to choose one to donate to or volunteer for.
Never did I think I would be writing this year about National Nonprofit Day Amid A Pandemic.
Running a nonprofit is already hard, and when you add a pandemic, it gets a little harder. I know nonprofits everywhere are feeling the same way I do. Daily I worry our fundraisers this year will suffer too much to recover and our wonderful supporters won’t be able to donate. The biggest thing I worry is that the breast cancer patients that ask for our financial help won’t get the proper help they ask for due to low funds.
ALL nonprofits operate on donations of money and volunteer time from generous people and businesses. During this pandemic, operations for all types of businesses came to a screeching halt. This halt forced everyone to reevaluate how they do business, prioritize their budget differently, prioritize their time differently. This halt has also forced nonprofits to do exactly the same thing.
As a leader of a small nonprofit, celebrating National Nonprofit Day (Amid A Pandemic) has a new meaning to me. It helped me realize how fortunate my nonprofit is to have been able to sustain so far. We have done it by reevaluating our budget and priorities as well.
Even though the smaller fundraisers that typically happen right now have not happened, smaller donations from businesses and people have come in as a complete and thankful surprise. I have received words of encouragement from many business owners, other nonprofit leaders, friends, family and especially my board members. I know without those words of encouragement and support I would be struggling even more emotionally over what could happen next.
Do you have a favorite nonprofit? If so, have you checked with them to find out what their needs are right now? If you haven’t, please do it today. Even if you don’t have the funds to donate, they might need someone to donate their time.
Every type of donation matters.
