Overnight, it seems, things changed. Fear and uncertainty around the Coronavirus gripped the world, restrictions on our movement and habits locked us down, and daily life became unrecognizable for people around the globe.
Suddenly, with a world in crisis, nonprofit organizations of every type of mission find themselves in a precarious situation. As jobs are lost, the need for services increases across all factions of society, but donations and other sources of income are deeply compromised.
The social impact sector, needed now more than ever, is facing a challenge it has never seen before — a worldwide pandemic. And it doesn’t look like things will get back to normal anytime soon. There will be a new normal, eventually. But right now, in this interim normal, how do nonprofits continue to fund and provide their critical services?
CharityHowTo, an online professional training center for nonprofit professionals around the world, is offering a number of free live and recorded online webinars to the nonprofit community during the crisis around coronavirus.
Webinars to Help Nonprofits Facing New Challenges
Webinars are taught by nonprofit experts and consultants from all over the globe who bring their deep knowledge and expertise to the nonprofit community as they try to navigate this tricky time.
Kurt Steiner, CEO and founder of CharityHowTo.com, explained that the webinars are being offered for free because nonprofits around the world are facing situations that most of them haven’t before. And as a resource to the nonprofit community, CharityHowTo feels an obligation to offer guidance in the most convenient (webinars) and affordable (free) way possible.
“Nonprofits do good all year long even in the best of times. But at times like this, they lead the way in caring, sharing and responding to the call to help,” Steiner said.
“We rest easier knowing that they are out there, working for the common good. We’re honored to be a part of that and happy to be able to offer resources to help in their work.”
The Struggle of Small Nonprofit Organizations
Nonprofits are hungry for information in these challenging and uncertain times. Free resources can help them pivot to meet the changing needs of their constituents and donors without further taxing their own funds, Steiner said.
“We are a small organization and can’t afford the premium at this time, so these free experiences are so valuable,” said Karen Lally, operations and development manager at Community Grows in the San Francisco Bay area.
“This webinar gave me three pages of ideas in less than 30 minutes,” Barb Richards, chief engagement officer at the Historic Embassy Theatre in Fort Wayne, New Jersey, wrote in feedback for the webinar she attended.
Nan Massicci, chief development officer at the Community Foundation of Tompkins County in Ithaca, New York, called a CharityHowTo webinar “an excellent use of my time.” And Anna DeJulia, the international student advisor at New Jersey’s Eastern Christian School, called her experience “time extremely well spent.”
An effective channel for knowledge sharing
One of the hallmarks of the CharityHowTo webinars is acknowledging that nonprofit professionals are busy, all the time, even when there isn’t a pandemic to contend with, Steiner says. In response, the free Coronavirus webinars are relatively short, no longer than an hour, and they pack a whole lot of information into the allotted time.
“CharityHowTo webinars are always thorough and well presented,” said Kay Velardo, agency administrator at Las Vegas’ Community Counseling Center. “I feel like they always make good use of my time.”
Offering recorded webinars on demand, Steiner said, ensures they are immediate and flexible, allowing fundraisers to fit them into their own busy schedules. Making all of the presentation slides available to participants also allows them to digest the information at their own pace.
Here are the offerings nonprofits can find in the free Coronavirus webinar series from CharityHowto.
Various nonprofit specific topics are covered, such as:
- What You Need to Know About Postponing and Canceling Events
- Fundraising in the Time of Coronavirus: How to Manage and Modify Your Fundraising
- Virtual Engagement: How to Create Participatory Virtual Experiences that Keep your Donors Engaged in Times of Crisis
- The CARES Act: A Step By Step Guide To Applying for Funding now!
- Leading In Crisis: A How-to Guide
- Coronavirus Legacies - How Your Program Can Survive
- And more
Live webinars will continue to run for the foreseeable future, and recordings of all sessions will be available on the CharityHowTo website for those who are unable to attend the live training. To sign up for any of CharityHowTo’s free Coronavirus nonprofit webinars, visit the Nonprofit Coronavirus Resource Page.