The pandemic has sent many of our nation’s nonprofits into a tailspin. But, even during the worst of the pandemic’s economic downturn, individual donors have stepped up, especially to help families in need. They have provided extra assistance to our country’s food banks, who saw a 55 percent increase in the demand for their services. They have made certain that their communities seek to find and serve everyone who needs assistance in troubled times.
For social services entities, the question will be whether the funding will remain as strong as demand continues long beyond the ultimate end of the pandemic. Even the most resilient of nonprofits continues to face a time of uncertainty. Will we see a fading of the focus of the funders who have been providing extra resources to nonprofits since the pandemic began? How long will mental health needs laid bare by the pandemic linger? How will social services find the additional revenue to serve those needs?
Community foundations and private foundations have grant making choices to make. As social needs continue, will they remain in the special alert status that has become their operating practice during our national crisis?
We need to find new ways to be there for nonprofits as they provide the glue that keeps our communities working. It is bit just about the big checks. It’s about all of us providing $10, $25, or $50 when we can.
Boomerang Giving provides a means to be there for our nonprofits and thus for our communities every day of the year. Many of us receive discounts for transportation, restaurant dining and entertainment that we do not need to count upon. We can use Boomerang Giving to pass on those discounts to the nonprofits that keep our communities strong.
Discounts that are “Boomeranged” support organizations that provide a boost to kids whose future is being shaped right now, or a hand-up to people in need. Together, we can do all this with resources that are already in our purses and pockets, the few dollars we get each week in senior discounts.
Boomerang Giving helps us redirect this “found money” that many of us do not need. As we redirect our discounts to help others, we will be a generation known by the way we “give back”. If we can afford it, we do not want to be let off the hook. What we can do together with our discounts adds up to many millions of dollars that can help this country its nonprofits and the people they serve find their way forward.