Читать книгу Achieving Excellence in Fundraising - Группа авторов - Страница 14

As we began work on this edition in spring 2020, nonprofits and fundraisers around the world faced challenges and uncertainties like never before. The novel coronavirus was in its first months and economies were staggering with the related pressures. In the United States, a social justice movement was spotlighting historical and structural issues related to racial equity. Similar social movements were occurring around the globe. Nonprofits were reflecting deeply on their commitments to equity and inclusion. Some faced exponential rises in needs for services, and others experienced declining opportunities to deliver their missions and garner needed income.

Because of COVID‐19, we could not gather in person for editorial meetings at the Indiana University (IU) Lilly Family School of Philanthropy at IUPUI. Rather, we met online as our university leaders explored the best ways to keep our community healthy and safe and maintain financial stability. Indiana University fundraisers paused to make sense of campus and community needs and expectations, rather than completing previously planned efforts. Like their peers at other colleges and universities, they called and wrote donors to check on their well‐being and to provide updates. They resumed fundraising, prioritizing emergency support for students, whose need for special assistance was quickly evident.

Just as university fundraisers were navigating unknown territory, fundraisers across the wide and diverse nonprofit sector found themselves scrambling to keep up with pressing demands for more resources. Their responsibility for funding organizational missions weighed heavily and they wondered how to build relationships without seeing donors in person. Like clients, donors, and everyone else, fundraisers struggled with their own personal difficulties and uncertainties.

As it turned out, we all soon witnessed the generosity of people helping their neighbors and communities in extraordinary ways. College students creating direct aid programs, providing funds, food, and even temporary housing for one another. Monetary gifts from individuals flooded into food pantries, community health organizations, schools, and social service agencies of all kinds. Small business owners shifted from profit‐making activities to providing free meals for frontline workers and making masks, isolation gowns, and hand sanitizer. Foundations responded by loosening grant restrictions, corporations made public pledges to aid in relief efforts, and both broadened commitments to social justice funding. State and local governments shifted priorities to address the pandemic, and the whole of society adjusted.

Now, two years later, we know that 2020 was the most generous year on record. Giving USA (2021) recorded $471.44 billion dollars in charitable giving driven by increased contributions from foundations and individuals. Although more difficult to track, direct giving, mutual aid, and other forms of informal giving and helping also appeared to increase in popularity (Stiffman 2021c). Online giving grew exponentially. Almost half of all households reported paying for services not used during pandemic closures such as childcare and gym memberships, while frequenting local businesses for take‐out meals and other needs (Mesch et al. 2020). Most nonprofits survived, battered and exhausted by the crisis, and some with smaller teams than before, but with a sense of relief as operations resumed more normally (Parks 2021). Through it all, fundraisers' work proceeded, bringing new perspectives and practices, and overcoming challenges. As this book goes to press, the learning and adapting continues.