The doctors, nurses, police, firemen, and EMTs who have been applauded as the frontline heroes of the corona virus pandemic richly deserve our respect and gratitude. Right behind them in the shadows, however, is a large contingent of hardworking heroes who are keeping Americans fed, picking up their trash, providing them life-saving medicine, delivering their groceries and packages, preparing their food, cleaning their hospitals, caring for those who are most vulnerable, and keeping us safe—often while earning low wages and few benefits. These are the humble people whose heroic service to society is notoriously overlooked.

“2020 has been a year of societal upheaval so massive it is like a rent in the Universe...and a tipping point has been reached.” (NPQ, Spring, 2020)

Nonprofit Role More Vital Than Ever

In this unprecedented environment the vulnerable population designation that is nonprofit’s primary area of concern is spreading wider and deeper across American society.

Sometimes, all an organization needs is a little organization!  This was the case for Michigan’s Departments of Community Health, DHS, and Education. In 1994, these organizations came together to form the Systems Reform Task Force with a primary goal to, “achieve better results for multigenerational families who receive services across multiple human service and educational systems.” The task force recognized the need for improved technology to simplify administrative processes, improved communication across systems, and reduced barriers to services for families. Specifically, children under DHS supervision frequently needed services across multiple systems. 

COVID-19 Diagnoses in Juvenile Facilities
Known Cases as of June 24
658 youth, 771 staff 

Annie E. Casey Foundation

“If there was ever a good time to make sure that not a single young person spends a single day in detention or placement unless there is an immediate and severe risk to community safety, this is it,” says Nate Balis, director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Juvenile Justice Strategy Group. “This is the time for juvenile justice agencies to scrutinize every detention and placement decision and to review — if not reconsider — every policy that leans toward confinement.”

Sometimes grassroots efforts are great, and sometimes the grass needs to be mowed!  This is the case for the Randolph County Dept. of Social Services (RCDSS), an agency that provides residents of Randolph County, NC with access to programs that promote economic independence and family stability. Specifically, services are meant to assist families and individuals to live in safe environments and remain self-sufficient.

Randolph County’s business is not unlike many of the other clients served by FAMCare. The department’s home-grown system of PDFs and clustered data simply was not working anymore. Although robust records were kept over the years, the department soon found itself needing increased efficiency with better reporting capabilities.

The COVID economic downturn has nonprofit management shifting into emergency mode. “Putting on the brakes” would be an understatement. Nonprofit sustainability, or the ability to continue delivering relevant social impact over the long term, has always been important to nonprofit leaders. But as the spread of COVID-19 causes upheaval in just about every aspect of society and highlights the deep social inequities many nonprofits are working to address sustainability is becoming even more of a top priority.

With 88% of 15,400 Medicare and Medicaid-eligible nursing homes reporting as of May 31, Medicare officials rolled out a federal database showing that the nation's nursing homes had 95,515 confirmed COVID-19 cases, 58,288 suspected cases, and more than 31,782 deaths among residents and staff. The Kaiser Family Foundation quickly amended the government’s admittedly incomplete statistics reporting more than 43,000 deaths, over a third of the nation’s known coronavirus deaths.

When shopping for case management software services, most believe it is critical to find a product that is both fully customizable and accessible. However, this was not exactly the case for Matthew Gosting, Information Technology Director with Rite of Passage, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of vulnerable youth through 40 plus programs spanning 15 plus states.

On June 6, 2020, there were 378,024 cases and 24,259 coronavirus-related deaths in New York State. Though Governor Cuomo reported these numbers are declining dramatically, he also called for continued vigilance as the state focuses on reopening. Contact tracing has become the keyword for relaxing limitations on public gatherings and opening up the state’s economy. The governor has said success will mean hiring an “army of tracers”, and 17,000 people will be hired.

As the corona virus pandemic descended over the world, everything changed for nonprofits. Suddenly many of the smaller organizations are fighting for survival. We contacted a retired professor from the Harvard Business School who has spent a lifetime researching nonprofit management to ask for his suggestions on nonprofit crisis management.