Volunteers fueled regional nonprofits throughout the pandemic
During the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, government officials called on people to shelter at home and to keep social distancing from others. In concept, this would seem like a disaster for any nonprofit that relied on volunteers to help with their activities.
In reality, regional nonprofits reported that the pandemic period did not disrupt the bonds with their volunteer bases.
“We saw a tremendous uptick in individuals and community members who wanted to connect to the community,” said Jeanette Gisbert, executive director at Volunteer New York. “Very early on in March 2020, we set up our virtual volunteer center, which was a curated list of things that folks could do virtually from home.
“We knew that nonprofits still needed volunteers to accomplish their mission,” Gisbert added. “But they just needed to kind of reimagine what volunteerism looked like in the state of a global pandemic.”
One organization that relied heavily on virtual platforms to accomplish its goals during the pandemic was the Fairfield County chapter of SCORE, a national network of volunteer business mentors. But according to Steve Smith, the chapter”™s managing director, their migration to virtual communications preceded the health crisis.
“We were going more and more digital anyway because of the congestion and traffic getting around Fairfield County,” he said.
With 126 volunteers and a client base of 15,000 clients, Fairfield County represents one of SCORE”™s largest chapters. Smith received positive feedback on the chapter”™s webinars and the one-on-one mentoring that its volunteer business experts offer to small-business owners.
“We”™ve had no drop off in our services rendered over the last 16 months,” he said. “Clients have been very happy.”
But as the health crisis recedes, Smith is not eager to rush back to the pre-pandemic way of operating.
“We”™re not going back to the old approach,” he said. “We”™ve set a new performance bar of effectiveness and we need to figure out the right kind of mix.”
However, not every organization could simply migrate to Zoom. Faith Ann Butcher, chief impact officer at United Way of Westchester and Putnam, reported that volunteers took proper health safety precautions in helping to assemble and deliver meal packages to residents in need of food assistance.
“We didn”™t lose volunteers at all,” Butcher said. “We actually increased volunteer capacity during this time, from 5,000 hours per year to 7,000 hours per year. People were extremely caring and very giving of their time.”
Over at the United Way of Coastal Fairfield County, the pandemic did not put a halt to the volunteer-fueled operations.
“Our volunteers organized corporate collections and drives,” said Gail Carroll, vice president of marketing and communications. “They collected food, diapers and toys for those in need, and United Way distributed them to our community partners serving families.”
Carroll noted that Sikorsky Aircraft in Stratford opened its cafeteria to the organization during this time, preparing lunches for distribution to food-insecure residents in four towns. Jeff Kimball, the CEO of this United Way chapter, led by example by personally distributing meal packages at a low-income housing project in Bridgeport.
Outside of food-focused efforts, Carroll reported the distribution of personal protective equipment to frontline workers, as well as efforts to encourage voter registration and participation in the U.S. Census outdoor vaccination clinics.
“Going forward, we are hoping to return to our in-person volunteering,” she said, citing such projects as book distribution at public events and reading to preschool classrooms.
For Volunteer New York”™s Gisbert, the pandemic has been a challenge, but she observed that nonprofits and the volunteers that keep them in motion are always up for a challenge.
“You know what happens after every disaster,” she said. “We”™ve seen that after 9/11, after Hurricane Sandy. We channeled it into this new environment.”