COVID-19 Effects: 2021 Update

Florida Nonprofit Alliance surveyed nonprofits across the state of Florida in late 2021 to get an update on how the COVID-19 pandemic affected them throughout the year.  The survey focused on effects on their programs, human resources, finances, funding, and planning. 1,565 nonprofit organizations participated in this round of research.

 

The key findings are split into two categories – the challenging news and the bright spots. 

 

The challenging news:
  • Nonprofits are not recovering quickly financially: 53% had a decrease in unrestricted revenue, and 48% have budgets that shrunk. And although COVID-19 relief funding was vital to 80% of nonprofit organizations making it through the pandemic, those sources are largely no longer available.
  • 49% of nonprofit organizations have spent some or all of their reserve funds, making them more financially fragile than before the pandemic.
    Fundraising and funding remains both the largest concern and a challenge for nonprofit organizations. Half of nonprofits generated less income from fundraising in 2021 than they did in 2020, building upon the 69% that had a drop in fundraising in 2020. And new sources for funding are not materializing in the way nonprofits have hoped they would.
  • At the same time, nonprofits are still seeing an increase in the demand for services; 38% of organizations experienced increased demand in 2021.36% of organizations have served more clients in 2021 than in 2020, and 30% said they served more this year than in 2019, pre-pandemic.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic continues to take a toll on volunteering. 44% of organizations are experiencing volunteer absences, and about half of the organizations are using fewer volunteers now than they did in 2019. 55% of organizations have altered their volunteering opportunities and/or experiences.
     
The bright side:
  • Nonprofits are getting back to providing services in person. 34% are providing services fully in-person, and 48% provide a hybrid of virtual and in-person services. Program operations was a big challenge for nonprofits in 2020, but nonprofits are feeling more confident and less challenged in program delivery this year.
  • 51% of organizations expect their 2022 budget to increase compared to this year’s budget
  • Nonprofits in Florida are largely not concerned with closing their doors or merging with another organization, and 27% of nonprofits say they can continue to operate their programs and services for more than two years (up from 18% in 2020).
  • Nonprofits are very interested in maintaining collaborations and partnerships that got them through the pandemic – a demonstration of both the collaborative nature and the resilience of the sector.
     

To access the full report, click here.

If you have questions about this research, please contact Leah McDermott at lmcdermott@flnonprofits.org.

 

Thank you to Wells Fargo for sponsoring this research.