Focus on Manatee | Don’t forget to celebrate the ‘pandemic positives’ from the past year

Focusing on the good will never fail you. A colleague at the Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation was the first person I heard using the term “pandemic positives.” He and others encouraged all of us to think carefully about what we were forced to change, what was positive about those changes and why they matter.

Our team at Manatee Community Foundation has made its own list of the good things from the past year, and we are planning to stick with them.

Manatee Community Foundation partnered with six foundations to survey local nonprofits about how the pandemic impacted their operations, programs and ability to raise money. Together with the William G. and Marie Selby Foundation, Community Foundation of Sarasota County, Charlotte Community Foundation, Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation and The Patterson Foundation, we believe that knowing more about what charitable organizations have faced will help our community move their vital missions forward.

We learned that technology continues to be a barrier for nonprofits, both internally and externally. Access to devices, broadband service, and the knowledge of how to use technology are not equally available to clients who are searching for work, in need of health care, and trying to advance their educational success. Many nonprofits have not had the necessary technology for their own staff and operations to be effective.

The pandemic has highlighted the need for unrestricted, operational funds. These funds allow organizations to be flexible in the services they deliver and to invest in their own capacity. Donors are stepping up to the plate by making more gifts that do not have confining parameters and can be used to respond to emerging needs — including technology.

Adding to the good news in the report, some organizations indicated that they are working with new nonprofit partners. They view these collaborations as positive forces for change that they plan to continue.

Some of the most exciting funds awarded from the CARES Act supported nonprofits in new collaborations. We applaud our friends at Tidwell Hospice for their impactful partnership with the Multicultural Health Institute, UnidosNow, Gulf Coast Latin Chamber of Commerce, Healthy Teens Coalition of Manatee County and others to advance health equity.

Listening to others’ voices and lived experiences

Manatee Community Foundation partners with our citizens to strengthen and enhance our community through philanthropy, education, and service — now and forever. We actively connect people to nonprofit organizations making gains in the areas most important to them. This year more than ever, we have noted that the voices of people who are most impacted by inequities are helping us make the biggest difference.

The pandemic has shined a light on existing disparities, in part because those disparities have deepened over the past year. By focusing on the data and what it tells us about the people who need more access to opportunity, we make our entire community more prosperous. Local data for Manatee County shows that Black and Hispanic individuals have significantly lower home ownership, are paid lower wages, have less digital access, and have lower educational attainment that white, non-Hispanic individuals.

Listening to people of color is giving us better information to make decisions that decrease barriers to success.

Nurturing our mental health

May is Mental Health Awareness Month. One in five U.S. adults experience mental illness in the United States. With the increased pressures of less social time, lost wages and fears of getting sick (or losing loved ones to COVID-19), mental health concerns have skyrocketed. It is time to pay more attention to taking care of ourselves.

Through the Manatee Matches Giving Circle and other donors, Manatee Community Foundation granted $30,000 to Take Stock in Children of Manatee to fund counseling needs of youth in its program. These teens are hard-working students with aspirations of college and careers. Like many others, they also faced challenges with increased anxiety and depression over the last year.

As our community learns to embrace mental health as part of our overall well-being, we destigmatize taking care of ourselves in an important way.

Manatee Community Foundation has contracted with nationally known author and nonprofit trainer Beth Kanter for a virtual visit in June. She will provide an interactive workshop for a group of people who often overlook their own needs while they are helping others — nonprofit leaders. Kanter will guide the participants in developing practical ways to keep up with their enormous responsibilities while caring for themselves.

In ways, the pandemic was like a hot yoga workout. We learned to bend, stretch and adapt in an environment with the heat rising from constantly changing information and directions. As we return to a more familiar way of life, we can take note of changes that need to stick. Indeed, there is good in everything if we keep moving forward.

Susie Bowie is executive director of the Manatee Community Foundation.

This story was originally published May 21, 2021 at 11:00 AM.