This past Monday morning, our tiny but mighty SA2020 team had our first meeting since we started seeing the exponential spread of COVID-19. Even though we’ve always had a work from home policy, we’ve never needed to do so all at once, so to the Google Hangout we went.
We’ve also since checked in on Zoom.
We talked about modeling social distancing, while upholding care for our fellow humans; pivoting major projects; and, above all, remembering that our job is to drive progress toward a shared Community Vision. Driving progress today means providing up-to-date resources, celebrating the helpers, and highlighting opportunities to step in and step up together.
We know we’re not alone in shifting our work to continue serving San Antonio. Nonprofits across the city are taking learning opportunities online, offering telehealth services, providing food to students and families, and keeping people informed. In fact, earlier this week SA2020 launched weisgreater.org to celebrate the people and organizations that are quickly and creatively responding to the needs of San Antonians through the COVID-19 crisis.
The work of nonprofits—including their understanding of their communities, their ability to shift programming and services, and the relationships they’ve built with those they serve—is absolutely critical. The significance of their work in the midst of COVID-19 crisis is two-fold: they are delivering critical services to San Antonians most in need and employing thousands of San Antonians through operations large and small.
In 2019, 144 SA2020 Nonprofit Partners employed 11,276 people and brought in $1.2 billion in revenue, moving the needle on every Community Result and improving outcomes for people in every City Council District in San Antonio. And we know this doesn’t tell the complete story of the local nonprofit sector. Based on IRS data from 2017, SA2020’s 144 Nonprofit Partners make up just under 3% of the total number of nonprofit organizations in Bexar County. To put that in perspective, this small segment of the local nonprofit sector is comparable in size to San Antonio’s entire Advanced Manufacturing industry, one of our community’s target industries.
Organizations that are providing critical services need help increasing their capacity. The San Antonio Area Foundation and the United Way of San Antonio and Bexar County are hosting the COVID-19 Response Fund in partnership with local funders to support nonprofit organizations in providing immediate relief and long-term recovery to the community. USAA and H-E-B have responded quickly, as well, shifting resources to provide support to nonprofits that are responding to critical needs due to COVID-19. SA2020 is maintaining a list of responsive funding here. We will continue to update it.
We also know that the organizations whose mission spoke to your heart before the crisis will speak to your heart after the crisis. And, right now, they need your support to continue their work.
The central question we have always asked at SA2020 is: how do you make the greatest impact?
Together, we can protect the delivery of critical services to neighbors most in need, support the financial sustainability of the local nonprofit sector, and show that “The entire community takes responsibility for our collective well-being,” as written in San Antonio’s Community Vision.
The Big Give/Emergency Relief Fund gives you an opportunity to donate directly to more than 520 nonprofit organizations that are responding to the needs of San Antonians and/or facing financial sustainability challenges. Of the 522 nonprofits on the site, 74% (388) are in Bexar County and 24% (94) of those are SA2020 Partners, all aligning their work to San Antonio’s Community Vision. Giving starts with as little as $10. You can support SA2020, and we encourage you to #Give2020 if you can and support one (or more) of our Partners directly from our page. The COVID-19 Response Fund is also welcoming individual donations, starting at $25. Donations can be made at helpsatx.org or texting HELPSATX to 41444.
At SA2020, we knew we would spend this year reaffirming and strengthening San Antonio’s Community Vision through the next decade. San Antonio is a community that has spent a decade aligning toward shared goals, seeing incremental, positive changes because of it and, of course, highlighting where things could and should be better.
If the past decade has taught us anything, it’s that we are infinitely stronger when we work together.
Give what you can today.
Then, tomorrow, let’s do it, again.
