CONTINUED FROM 1 Covid-19 ,
s effects
Climbing back Big Brothers Big Sisters of South Texas saw more inquiries about volunteering in the rst eight months of 2022 than in all of 2020 and 2021.
The pandemic had a deep impact on the volunteer ranks who serve San Antonio’s nonpro ts, forcing the nonpro ts to retool sta ng and how services were provided to clients.
Nationally
Locally
12.5M nonpro t jobs in the U.S. prior to COVID-19
115 SA2020 partners, which represents just under 3% of nonpro ts in Bexar County 7,434 people employed by those 115 nonpro ts in 2021
22,171 volunteers served some 500,470 hours in 2021 , producing an added value of more than $16.8 million to San Antonio’s economy 1,593 people volunteered their time and expertise as board members
Total inquiries
Average inquiries per month
1,500 1,200
1,255
82% of nonpro t jobs recovered as of March 2022 March-May 2020, reducing the nonpro t workforce by 13.3% 1.64M nonpro t jobs lost from
900 600 300 0
636
591
551
105
80
49
46
$660M in revenue brought in by those 115 nonpro ts in 2021
2019
2020
2021
2022
SOURCE: BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF SOUTH TEXAS COMMUNITY IMPACT
SOURCES: SA2020, CENTER FOR CIVIL STUDIES ARCHIVE COMMUNITY IMPACT
CEO of The Nonpro t Council, a membership organization that works with nonpro t leaders and runs the annual online fundraising event The Big Give. McAninch said of the roughly 300 nonpro ts surveyed through The Nonpro t Council, 90% reported a drastic decline in volunteer workers. And SA2020, a San Antonio nonpro t that also works with potential volun- teer board members through its pro- gram The Board Game, reported in its 2021 annual report that 80% of the 115 nonpro ts they partnered with reported a drop in volunteers due to the pandemic, which mirrors reports across the region and state. The pandemic’s punch In 2020, the San Antonio Area Foundation funded a study that was co-developed with the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce, the Family Service Association, the Nonpro t Council, and United Way of San Anto- nio and Bexar County. The 2020 Nonpro t Economic Impact Study showed that COVID-19 was exacerbating the city’s pre-exist- ing needs, which are often split along racial lines. Nonpro ts were being called on to increase aid to families while at the same time experiencing signi cant loss of revenue with can- celed fundraising events and dras- tic changes in their sta ng models, according to the report. Michele Hoskins, executive director of the Masters Leadership Program of Greater San Antonio, said with the increased needs, new nonpro ts were formed to serve San Antonio and the surrounding area amid the pandemic.
At the same time, Hoskins said, work- forces for established nonpro ts and civic organizations shrank—both paid and volunteer. By 2022, there were 10,455 non- pro ts in San Antonio, an increase of 5.49% over the previous year, Hoskins said. In 2020, there were 85% fewer volunteer hours given, and over 2021 and 2022 volunteers have slowly returned to nonpro t organizations, Hoskins said. Hoskins, whose organization pro- vides training for board members who serve with nonpro ts and civic orga- nizations, said partner agencies are reporting volunteers are returning. SA2020 is reporting the same. In SA2020’s 2021 annual report, 80% of the 115 nonpro ts they part- nered with reported, over scal year 2020-21, 22,171 volunteers served upwards of 599,470 hours. In 2021, the Independent Sector
among volunteers, sta members and clients, said Ariana Barbour, director of marketing and communication. The loss of volunteers also included corporate teams that could o er time in a larger way. Both are returning to nonpro ts, but Barbour said it has been slower with corporate partners. With fewer volunteers, Meals on Wheels sta members are lling in the gaps. The Gonzaba Foundation for Healthier Communities stepped up in mid-October to o er 50 volunteers to deliver meals for a day to seniors on San Antonio’s South Side. “We’re doing this to give [Meals on Wheels] respite, to give their volunteers a break,” said Fernanda Cardenas, executive director of The Gonzaba Foundation, a charitable organization supported by Gonzaba Medical Group that works to provide resources to elderly people. Meals on Wheels delivers 4,000 hot meals a day to seniors who may oth- erwise have no way to get a hot meal, Cardenas said. “It was really eye-opening to see, to think, ‘How are these seniors getting their meals if there’s a shortage of vol- unteers?’” Cardenas said. Meals on Wheels CEO Vinsen Faris said it is also about more than the meal, and volunteers are critical to the organization’s success. “I used to be the one guy who’d jump on the table [saying], ‘It’s all about the nutrition, it’s all about the food, it’s all about the meal’—to give them strength,” Faris said, adding he now has a better understanding of what matters most. “It’s really the personal touch. It’s the volunteers
is a shared community vision, rst de ned in 2010 under then Mayor Julian Castro, then again in 2020. That overall community vision is meant to drive progress in San Antonio and work toward equity—one decade at a time, she said. Nonpro ts, including the boards that govern them, are a big piece of the puzzle, said Bains and other non- pro t leaders. “Volunteerism is something we de nitely want to track better,” Bains said. Current climate Bains said the reduction in volun- teers was, in some cases, because it became dangerous if volunteers were in direct contact with others during the onset of COVID-19. In other cases, volunteer roles changed or adapted to meet the needs of clients during the pandemic. Nonpro ts had to innovate to survive the crisis, Bains said. One example, Bains for seniors, imple- mented new technol- ogy to help coordinate volunteer drivers. The downside was that some volunteers were unable to use the new technology, Bains said. said, is that Meals on Wheels, which pro- vides nutritious meals and companionship Meals on Wheels also shifted its model from a daily hot meal delivery system to a twice-weekly frozen meal delivery system, then to pandemic pickup locations to reduce contact
estimated the value of time given by vol- unteers by calculating the average hourly rate of volunteers at $28.14 per hour in Texas, a 6.5% increase over 2020, the report stated. The volunteers who served SA2020’s nonpro t partners
“WE’RE NEEDING MENTORS IN EVERY QUADRANT IN TOWN, NORTH AND SOUTH, EAST AND WEST,”
DENISE BARKHURST, BIG BROTHERS BIG SISTERS OF SOUTH TEXAS PRESIDENT AND CEO
produced an added value of more than $16.8 million that contributed to the city’s economy. SA2020 President and CEO Kiran Kauer Bains said her organization is working hard to increase volunteer- ism to a ect larger scale change. The foundation of the organization
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