Springfield Business Journal_2021-01-25

SPRINGFIELD BUSINESS JOURNAL · 13 JAN 18-24, 2021 actually love the virtual, like getting Snapchats from their CASA volunteer and us teaching our CASA volunteers how to send a Snapchat. Telling the story Olson: Prior to 2021, it seemed donor fatigue was a local challenge. What was the experience with donors in 2020? Hynson: We were kind of nervous about that because (COVID-19) hit in really one of our lower times. But we were able to quickly raise $20,000 through an online campaign that we were able to throw together real quick – crowd- funding. That was for COVID response for the food pantry. Then we got the (Paycheck Protection Program) loan, and we were able to sort of put that back. Our board would rather use our surplus, so they said, “Don’t touch that PPP money until we have it forgiven.” We were able to operate without it. It was kind of like that super emergency fund that we didn’t want to use. Having two CPAs on our finance committee, they’re extremely conservative, that’s good. We played stuff close to the vest. Unless we needed it, we’re not doing it. We’re keeping our staff. We raise almost half a million dollars every De- cember, and we need it every year. The (Neighborhood Assistance Program) tax credits really helped. I really think that $300 push per person with the (Coronavirus, Aid, Relief and Economic Security) Act really helped. I saw some really good other nonprofits actu- ally sending that out, educating their donors [on the tax credit]. You added it into that standard deduction. I’m cau- tiously optimistic. Farmer: I think that’s where I’m at, also. We had a strong year financially at CASA for 2020. I understand what you’re talking about, Eric, with the do- nor fatigue and you hear that amongst the nonprofit organizations, but I think when there’s a crisis, and the pandemic was absolutely a crisis, people knew that if there was a time to give, it was in 2020. They wanted to rally around us nonprofits and support the clients that we serve. I really hope that that continues in 2021 because there is some uncertainty in the state budget, specifically, for child welfare. There were some state funding cuts for child welfare organizations (and) some un- certainty with the federal government funding. In 2020, there was some addi- tional coronavirus funding. There were additional coronavirus grants through Community Foundation of the Ozarks. I hope that all of that support continues into 2021, because we’re not out of the woods yet. Givens: A lot of donor fatigue goes back to the multitude of events that we hold in southwest Missouri with every one of our nonprofits. We have four big ones a year, and we’re just one non- profit. With all of these events being canceled or maybe being downsized, I think there was a lot of businesses and individuals who were not being hit up for events that normally are. Lost & Found has a wonderful group of supporters, and our services are needed now more than ever. Our supporters under- stood that. Farmer: In 2020, nonprofits really pared their ser- vices down to the essential services. And the services were really qual- ity. The community recognized that. They have learned to tell their story, so that it gets to the heart of the donor and the donor understands why those services are really important. Givens: We got to the root of what every single fundraising expert will tell you: Pick up the phone, call your donor, tell your story. They will respond. You don’t have to have a gala. You don’t have to have a 5K. Giving trends Olson: Nationally, we have yet to see the 2020 figures, but 2019 was one of the highest years on record for giving to charitable nonprofits, up 4% to nearly $450 billion. How did you end the year? Hynson: We were really pleased. We have a fiscal year that goes through June 30, so we’re kind of halfway through and we’re trending up. We got the PPP loan forgiven, so that there was a nice boost that we usually don’t count on. Farmer: We also had a year of growth in 2020, and we have been growing our revenue as well as our programs. We try to pace that growth together, because we want to serve every child in foster care and we’re still a ways away from doing that. We also had a solid, great end-of-year campaign. We had greater growth than the 4% growth nationally. I really do honestly think that that’s because we have a team – we have our board, we have several committees – that are really focused on strategic growth for our organiza- tion. In 2019, we participated in our strategic plan and we set some, really what we thought at the time were going to be, huge, auda- cious goals and it would take us five years to accomplish here. We are less than two years into our strategic plan, and we’ve already accomplished those goals. So, now we’re setting the bar even higher as far as our growth. We have to have staff that sup- port the volunteers that are working with the children in foster care. 2020, it made us put the brakes on a little bit to say we want to make sure that we can maintain our current staffing. We want to make sure that we are serving the kids that we are committed to. We realized quickly that in 2020, the number of children in foster care was increasing, so it was important for us to tell that story. The community really did rally around us to say we’re going to donate to you all so that we can continue to add staff. We added two new staff positions, which means that we have 60 additional volunteers that can serve up to 100 children. Givens: We had about 16% growth from 2018 to 2019 and then our 2020 was amazing. We’re down about 60% of our events income; we are so event heavy with our revenues. We’re up about 95% in unrestricted donations. It tells us we can raise money without having to have an event. Olson: Can you share how you approach what might be a tension between the mission and the money? How do you address it as a leader of the nonprofit? Farmer: At CASA, we actually play the Great Game of Business. We started that in 2019 and it has really changed the way our organization looks at our finances, as well as our program num- bers. We meet weekly with our team, and everyone is on the same page. Our staff understand our financial goals (and) where the money is going. That transparency for our organization has really transformed the way that we talk with one another, the way that we goal set and the way that we work as a team to accomplish our goals. Givens: When we raise money, I think of it as: This is other people’s money, and they expect the money to go toward programs. If I was to contact any of our donors and just say, this is how I’m spending the money, if I feel confident in being able to tell any of our donors how we’re spending the money that they gifted us, I feel like it’s money well spent. Sometimes, there is more money than expenditures coming in. That’s being put off to the side, so hopefully we can have one less event. We’re going to invest that money; the interest that we’re raising on it, hope- fully that can go toward operations. Hynson: At Victory Mission four years ago when I got there, there was almost $1 million in long-term debt and $250,000 in accounts payable. We were running a line of credit with the vendors that we had, and rather than paying our bills on time, we were run- ning six months of expenses. We really started playing the Great Game of Busi- ness in 2017 in the summer. It literally changed everything. As a nonprofit, we have this poverty mindset like the clients we serve – “I hope my check cashes this week.” That was ridiculous. Being a faith-motivated group, I was like, that does not represent the God that we serve that’s supposed to own the cattle on a thousand hills. We just recently paid off all the debt. Victory Mission is completely out of debt, and we have six months of expenses in the bank. One of our board members, who is a coach for the Great Game of Busi- ness, she always says, “No money, no mission.” Excerpts by Features Editor Christine Temple, ctemple@sbj.net. 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