NONPROFITS
PANDEMIC FORCES NONPROFIT ORGANIZATIONS
TO FIND ALTERNATE WAYS TO FUND SERVICES
16
TCBusiness.com
JOE SEMKOW
The Blue Angels fly in formation over the Indian River Lagoon and the eastern part of the city during their 2018 appearance at the Vero Beach Air Show.
Nonprofit organizations typically rely on
one major event to raise the bulk of funds
needed to support their services for the
upcoming year. And the month of March
is the most popular time to hold those
events. But March of 2020 will forever be
remembered as the year the world shut
down due to COVID-19. Businesses were
closed, events were canceled and people
were asked to stay at home to contain the
spread of the virus.
As the state reopens, businesses implement
new pandemic policies and apply
for government loans to help them recoup
some of the losses. Nonprofits, however,
rely on the generosity of donors and those
that were denied fundraising galas and
other events are scrambling to make up
for the shortfall without cutting back on
services.
The Veterans Council of Indian River
County shares the proceeds from the
biyearly air show with the Indian River, Treasure
Coast and Vero Beach Exchange Clubs.
“The big draw to the air show is the
appearance of the Blue Angels,” council
chairman Martin Zickert said. “We had
worked on this event for two years and
now we’ll have to wait until 2022 to hold
it again. The Blue Angels canceled all of
their appearances across the globe in early
March and we knew we had to make the
same call.”
The decision to cancel the show was
made by the board of directors just a few
days before the governor banned all large
gatherings in Florida. To further complicate
matters, all other stunt performers
had been paid, corporate sponsors
secured and tickets sold.
“Literally everything was ready to go
when the bottom fell out,” Zickert continued.
“So, we’ll really have to start from
square one again. We will honor all of our
presold tickets for the upcoming event in
2022.”
Fortunately, the council was able to hold
its annual fundraiser in February, enabling
it to continue all its services.
“We were able to continue helping
veterans financially through our Upward
American Veterans program and assisted
others with home repairs through our
Veterans Helping Veterans program. The
United Way came to our aid and we were
able to get a PPP loan to keep our two
staffers employed.”
COPING WITH STRESS
The Mental Health Association of Indian
River County knew that people would
need its help more than ever due to the
anxiety that has surfaced during the
quarantine.
“We never shut our doors,” CEO Nick
Coppola said. “We made a quick switch
to telehealth so that our clients could still
consult with our homebound therapists
and we kept a skeleton staff in the office
to accommodate walk-in clients and keep
operations running. We were very fortunate
to secure a PPP loan which allowed >>
BY KERRY FIRTH
/TCBusiness.com
