Resources to Help Nonprofits Manage the COVID-19 Crisis

The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of change and uncertainty. As a nonprofit founder, you may be dealing with a number of issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic—everything from managing employees who are working from home to operating on a reduced budget due to future income uncertaintanties. We’ll be hosting a webinar very soon, but in the meantime, we’ve compiled a list of team and financial resources to help your organization make it through this difficult time below.

Team Support

Develop a Crisis Plan

If you do not already have a crisis plan in place, developing one is of paramount importance. A crisis plan will help you decide how to run your organization for the duration of the pandemic while also ensuring you have a plan for the future, including the potential need to recover financially or otherwise once the country is back to normal. Nonprofit New York is temporarily offering free access to its Business Continuity and Disaster Recovery Plan Template to nonmembers.

Take Care of Your Employees

The coronavirus is contributing a lot of stress to organizational leaders of all types—but we cannot forget that employees are stressed out, too. Have you communicated with your employees about the future of the organization? Your employees may be worried about losing their jobs, so make sure everyone is on the same page concerning employment. Nonprofit HR is a fantastic resource for all things human resources. Give their site a visit for webinars, toolkits, and more to help you take care of your employees. 

Transition to Telecommuting

If your nonprofit organization has employees, the widespread stay-at-home orders and/or recommendations will affect your workforce in many ways. One of the most prominent changes many organizations are experiencing is having employees work from home. Thankfully, there are a number of great tips for how to successfully implement a work-from-home policy. We recommend these tips from the Montana Nonprofit Association.

Don’t Forget About Fundraising

We know your plate is full right now — keeping your nonprofit afloat, ensuring your team is physically and mentally healthy, adjusting to new administrative policies, and more. It can be easy to overlook fundraising and even daunting to know that it has to be done in an environment in which donors are less focused than ever on their non-coronavirus giving. But there are ways to fundraise honorably and effectively during these trying times. The Association of Fundraising Professionals has gathered the most comprehensive fundraising resource guide we have seen on the issue.

Utilize Free Work Tools

• Google Hangouts Premium is free through July 1.

• Microsoft Teams is available for free for 6 months.

• GoToMeeting is also offering its remote work tools free for 3 months.

Emergency Financial Support

CARES Act

Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act ("CARES Act"), a $2.2 trillion Phase 3 COVID-19 emergency relief bill aimed at providing relief in response to the coronavirus outbreak. The CARES Act includes provisions applying to nonprofit organizations, such as new loan opportunities, tax credits for retaining employees and more. To read through the key provisions of sector-wide interest to charitable nonprofit organizations, we recommend visiting the National Council of Nonprofits’ article on how this new law can financially help support your organization.

• A guide for how to apply for CARES Act nonprofit relief funds can be found here.

• A chart of loans available for nonprofits in the CARES Act can be found here.

SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program

The SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) Program provides small businesses and nonprofits with low-interest loans of up to $2 million that can provide vital economic support to small businesses to help overcome the temporary loss of revenue they are experiencing due to COVID-19.

• Apply for SBA's EIDL here.

NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund

With generous support from the Ford Foundation and a group of leading New York philanthropies, Nonprofit Finance Fund is providing no-interest loans to New York City nonprofit organizations working in the human services, with a particular interest in those supporting essential healthcare, food delivery, homeless services, workforce development, educational support, and early childhood education, and arts and culture, so you can cover your costs while waiting for revenue that has been delayed by the current crisis.

• Apply for NYC COVID-19 Response & Impact Fund here.

Resilia is Offering Financial Relief to Nonprofits & Small Businesses

We invite you to use the form listed below to nominate a nonprofit or small business owner (including yourself, if you're a nonprofit founder or small business owner) who needs immediate financial relief due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Select nonprofits and business owners will receive $500-$1000 in financial support, and for those we cannot support, we will send your information for consideration to other organizations that we are partnering with who are also making immediate grant awards.

• Include your Resilia nomination here. 

We encourage you to share the resources found here and, despite the challenges you may be facing, to continue your mission in making a great impact in our communities. Our team is here to help. Contact us to learn more about what Resilia can do for you.