Open Hand is hardly alone. Because the pandemic drags via a second yr, lots of metro Atlanta’s largest nonprofits are persevering with to adapt to fulfill their missions — generally on the fly — as provide chain issues, new variants and labor shortages proceed to roil day-to-day life.
Open Hand simplified its menu choices. It put in an enormous, 2,600 square-foot freezer so meals might be ready upfront and delivered as soon as as an alternative of two to a few occasions every week. And it streamlined its bundle meeting course of, instituting drive-through pickup for its volunteers, who drop off the 30,000-odd meals every week to the group’s 4,800 largely low-income clients.
Many organizations have adjusted their operations to attenuate COVID transmission and keep in mind fewer staff, volunteers and provides. Some have expanded their footprint to fulfill overwhelming demand created by the virus, whereas others have scaled again on account of a decline in donations. A number of have even discovered extra environment friendly methods of doing enterprise that they plan to proceed post-pandemic.
The adjustments Open Handcrafted, for instance, have minimize down on distribution prices by 60%, Anderson stated.
Frederica Broadney (left) greets volunteer driver Rob Muething as he fingers her a field of meals from Open Hand Atlanta. PHIL SKINNER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION.
Credit score: Phil Skinner
Frederica Broadney (left) greets volunteer driver Rob Muething as he fingers her a field of meals from Open Hand Atlanta. PHIL SKINNER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION.
Credit score: Phil Skinner
Credit score: Phil Skinner
When the COVID lockdowns started, many nonprofits nervous that donations would dry up.
However giving, the truth is, has surged.
Individuals opened their wallets to assist those that had misplaced their livelihoods through the pandemic. In addition they spent to help within the restoration from western wildfires and different pure disasters and to advertise racial fairness.
Charitable donations to U.S. charities hit a report $471 billion in 2020, in line with an annual report revealed by the Giving USA Basis, a virtually 4% enhance over the earlier yr after inflation.
Many space nonprofits, together with the Shepherd Middle and CARE, shattered earlier fundraising highs.
In early 2020, CARE launched into a $75 million fundraising marketing campaign to rejoice the group’s seventy fifth anniversary. However leaders opted to shift their focus to elevating cash for the COVID-19 response globally. It could change into the most important emergency response effort within the group’s historical past, stated Mary Anne Ericson, CARE’s director of fundraising. The nonprofit has collected about $125 million.
“We noticed quite a lot of new donors to our group,” Ericson stated, citing India’s battle with the delta variant as a very galvanizing second. “I believe it’s the urgency for folks to need to do one thing concerning the crises they’re seeing on this planet.”
Because the vaccine introduced some points of life nearer to regular in 2021, some teams nervous that donors would reduce. However the giving persevered.
Volunteer Health Buddy Doyle Mote works with affected person Donna Luttrell throughout her morning exercise on the Shepherd Middle Monday, December 13, 2021. STEVE SCHAEFER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Credit score: Steve Schaefer
Volunteer Health Buddy Doyle Mote works with affected person Donna Luttrell throughout her morning exercise on the Shepherd Middle Monday, December 13, 2021. STEVE SCHAEFER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Credit score: Steve Schaefer
Credit score: Steve Schaefer
Youth Villages — a corporation that treats younger folks with behavioral, emotional and psychological issues, together with at a residential campus in Douglasville — stated it has surpassed its Georgia fundraising objective by 40%.
The Alpharetta-based Nationwide Christian Basis — which liquidates donors’ inventory, actual property and different property and provides the proceeds to chosen charities — stated it’s introduced in additional than $1.3 billion in charitable contributions because the starting of the yr. That’s a report for the group, which funds many evangelical, conservative and civic causes.
Spokesman Steve Chapman attributed the outpouring largely to a robust inventory market, surging actual property costs and excessive enterprise valuations.
The street has been rockier for others. Charities that depend on in-person fundraising occasions and workplaces to pool donations have struggled.
The American Most cancers Society, identified for its annual Relay for Life stroll, noticed its donations shrivel 21% as soon as the pandemic hit. In summer time 2020, the Atlanta-based group laid off 1,000 employees nationally. Crystal Brown, the society’s vice chairman for Georgia, stated the group has “seen extra constructive tendencies in income and engagement” this yr, particularly as some in-person occasions resumed.
The United Approach of Better Atlanta, in the meantime, noticed office marketing campaign income decline 20% in its final fiscal yr and a roughly 70% lower in volunteers.
Regardless of that, the group discovered different methods to assist meet neighborhood wants within the wake of the coronavirus. It partnered with the Neighborhood Basis for Better Atlanta to determine the COVID-19 Response & Restoration Fund, which between spring 2020 and this summer time raised and distributed greater than $28 million to nonprofits on the frontlines of the pandemic.
Others needed to shift the way in which they perform their missions to account for fewer folks.
The Shepherd Middle depends on a steady of volunteers to feed lots of its paralyzed sufferers, ship mail and arrange tools for bodily remedy classes. However with strict customer limits in place to stanch the unfold of the virus, employees members — from nurses to the advertising and marketing workforce — crammed in for roughly a yr.
Volunteer Zach Wilson helps affected person Dean Southworth along with his breakfast on the Shepherd Middle Monday morning, December 13, 2021. STEVE SCHAEFER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Credit score: Steve Schaefer
Volunteer Zach Wilson helps affected person Dean Southworth along with his breakfast on the Shepherd Middle Monday morning, December 13, 2021. STEVE SCHAEFER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION
Credit score: Steve Schaefer
Credit score: Steve Schaefer
Nonetheless, some supporters discovered methods to assist. Eating places donated meals for workers. Companies gave private protecting tools.
“We actually noticed folks step in and say ‘The place’s the hole?’ ” stated Sarah L. Batts, government director of the Shepherd Middle Basis.
For the provision chain points confronted by some organizations, nonetheless, there are few workarounds.
The hovering prices of construction materials have created challenges for Habitat for Humanity, which was already coping with fewer volunteers and skyrocketing real estate costs.
“When lumber goes up by 300%, that for us is a $20,000 enhance on the worth tag of a home simply on that one entrance,” stated B. Ryan Willoughby, government director of the charity’s Georgia department.
Open Hand has contended with provide chain problems with its personal.
Shortages of elements its nutritionists depend on to construct their wholesome recipes, from low sodium rooster breast to yeast, have despatched employees members scrambling to space grocery shops for substitutes.
However one scarcity, particularly, has grabbed the group’s consideration.
Workers members have nearly run out of the disposable containers they bundle meals in. The resin that the trays are coated in is briefly provide.
A employee controls the machine that seals meals at Open Hand Atlanta. PHIL SKINNER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION.
Credit score: Phil Skinner
A employee controls the machine that seals meals at Open Hand Atlanta. PHIL SKINNER FOR THE ATLANTA JOURNAL-CONSTITUTION.
Credit score: Phil Skinner
Credit score: Phil Skinner
It’s arduous for the kitchen to change to a different model. The machines that seal and label the meals are solely constructed for that particular tray. The group was lately getting ready to regulate — but once more — after they obtained a supply.
“By the pores and skin of our enamel they’ve are available,” Anderson stated.
