Fillmore County is home to a number of non-profit organizations which, like everyone else, are feeling the impact of the economic downturn caused by the coronavirus mitigation practices currently in place. The Journal reached out to several of these organizations recently to get a glimpse into how they are “weathering the storm.”
When asked about the immediate impact on his organization, Mike Speck, Operations Director at the Chatfield Center for the Arts, quipped, “We’re an organization that relies on getting lots of people together in close proximity to each other to enjoy artists, so for some reason we’re really not doing well under a shutdown order.” He then added, “But it needs to happen; we absolutely understand.”
Speck noted that the Center’s revenues include donations, grants, and sponsorships, but that roughly half of the revenues come in via ticket and concession sales, so the financial outlook is anything but clear and rosy. He added, “We’re kind of flying by the seat of our pants. We have moved and postponed (events), canceled when we had to, postponed when we can… all of our concerts from March and April, most of May… We are crossing our fingers that the restrictions on groups of more than 250 people are lifted by the end of May… We just kind of don’t know at this point.”
Regarding the long-range impact on the Center, Speck replied, “It’s going to hurt. But we’ve benefitted from some wonderful donors and supporters, and a really observant and watchful board who have put us in a solid position.” He added that, as a non-profit 501c3 organization, the Center is expanding its efforts at securing grants and loans to get through the current crisis.
When asked what the public can do to help the arts, Speck answered, “Keep in mind that our artists are really hurting now… so if people are looking to support artists… look for websites that sell CDs and vinyl and merchandise.” He added, “I’m sure (Lanesboro’s) Commonweal would love some help.”
Another non-profit organization that is feeling the crunch is Good Earth Village, located just outside Spring Valley. Executive Director Dianna Park shared that, “We’ve been serving the region for 50 years. We are a non-profit ecumenical ministry. We have retreats and things all year, and we host a lot of stuff. But our main event really is preparing for summer camp and running a summer camp.” She said the organization generally has overnight guests on 40-some weekends per year, and serves around 900 children over the summer, including three intergenerational events (family camp, grandparents camp, and preschool camp).
Regarding the impact of the shutdown orders, Park explained, “In the short-term, it’s cut off our revenue. We had planned for a very busy spring, and everything has been canceled. So I’d say it’s a very profound impact.” She stated that roughly 70% of the Village’s revenues are from donations of some sort, with the remainder being mostly from fees collected. She said she’s looking for grants and other types of governmental assistance available, but in many cases, faith-based ministries are disqualified from some funding sources. She also shared that the Village holds a large fundraising event every fall in October, but because the event requires months of planning (and securing sponsorships), it’s tough to be confidently planning for that during a time of such uncertainty. She also said she’s keenly aware that as families are struggling to make ends meet, now is not the time to be actively soliciting donations from the public.
Regarding her staff of six fulltime and four part-time employees, Park stated, “We’re taking advantage of the Payroll Protection Program, so that we can keep our people working now, but that’s only for eight weeks, so it’s pretty scary.” Regarding the long-range impact on Good Earth Village, Park said, “The difficult part of that question is that none of us knows how long this is going to go… If kids can’t gather, I’m just not sure what the outlook is going to be for camp this summer… We’re working toward other delivery ideas, but it’ll be dramatically different no matter what.”
Park said to the extent that the public is willing and able to give to non-profit organization such as Good Earth Village, she encourages people to consider that, beause, “The thing is, we’re going to want these cultural things to be around on the other side of this, and we have bills to pay now… on our website, we have myriad number of ways that people can give.” In summary, Park said she’s dealing with a lot of unknowns at this time, and stated, “Good Earth Village is holding firm that we just want to wait and see what is happening in the early part of May… I hope people will lean into the positive. There is some good, and we will prevail.”
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