Businesses, schools and other organizations are all feeling the impact of the COVID-19 impact one way or another.
For non-profits, the pandemic has made it difficult to hold fundraisers.
The annual budget for the Northwoods Alliance for Temporary Housing is around $280,000.
That money helps NATH provide safe housing and basics needs to people and families experiencing homelessness.
About $20,000 to $30,000 its budget comes from state and federal governments.
The rest comes from fundraising efforts, efforts that have been severely hurt by the COVID-19 pandemic according to NATH Executive Director Tammy Modic.
“We have had to cancel a number of our fundraisers due to the pandemic and a few of the ones that we’ve been able to pull off have been at a much smaller level,” said Modic.
NATH has tried to get creative with its fundraising, including online auctions and altering some if its events like Pints and Pasties and Soup for Shelter to be more social distance friendly.
Still, the fundraising committee is about $12,000 shy of its 2020 goals and Modic has concerns about the upcoming year.
NATH has already chosen to postpone its biggest fundraiser of the year which usually happens in February.
“The pandemic isn’t going to stop on December 31st, so we’re going to start the 2021 calendar year probably behind in our fundraising also,” said Modic.
The news of additional CARES Act funding made available through the state is welcome news to many non-profits, but not to NATH who was told it wouldn’t qualify because it had already received some CARES Act dollars through the Paycheck Protection Program.
“My grants chairperson and myself sat in on a webinar that was put out by the state and any non-profit who’s received any other CARES dollars, which the PPP loan is, is not eligible for this new round funding,” said Modic.
Modic is hoping donations from people and community partners will help make up for the amount fundraisers couldn’t cover this year.
“The need continues. We opened our doors January 31, 2011. Coming up on our 10-year anniversary and we’ve never been empty,” said Modic.
NATH is looking for people, businesses or organizations that would like to help fundraise with them.
You can reach out to NATH if you’re interested, 715-369-9777.
