Trying to stay afloat
Fundraising falling short for East Coast community groups due to pandemic
It’s been a tough go for community groups across the East Coast this year as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has made fundraising largely impossible.
Bonavista, N.L., Mayor John Norman chairs 12 community groups and non-profit organizations in his community. Of that number, he says, most are in dire financial straits as they face costs they simply haven’t raised funds to cover.
For some, like the Bonavista Horticultural Society, subsidized costs and no brick and mortar bills mean that while it’s been a lean year, they will be able to get by. But for others, who own their buildings and pay cold season costs like heating, no fundraising could mean they cannot carry those cost.
For now, Norman says community groups like his are forced to do what they can to try and stay afloat.
“The pandemic has put us into borderline dormancy. We had one meeting this year just to be able to say we had an AGM,” he says.
Brick and mortar costs have been cause for concern for the Milton Community Hall in Miltonvale Park, where hall secretary Shari MacDonald says heating bills will soon be due.
The hall’s insurance costs alone total $3,000 and, with annual hall fundraising events like socials, weekly card parties and its lobster take-out event all cancelled, little money was raised to offset this cost.
The hall did receive government support from the COVID-19 Business Adaptation Advice Program and Case Team Program, she says, which developed workspaces with fibre-op internet access for rent at the hall.
That funding reduced the COVID-19 deficit from $9,000 to $4,000, and a Red Cross grant means the hall now has $9,000 more to help P.E.I. seniors this year.
“Community halls are often a hub of community, so this money we now have to push back into the community will make such a difference,” says MacDonald.
Like Norman’s horticulture group, the Digby Volunteer Fire Department in Nova Scotia doesn’t have building expenses, other than janitorial cleaning services. Department president Ralph Cummings says its big purchase this year was $60,000 of new equipment to use with the new fire truck purchased by the Town of Digby.
He says without fundraising, such purchases would also fall on the town and increase tax burdens.
“Fundraising is our backbone. It’s the only income we have. If we don’t raise that little bit of money, then town would have to be good for it all,” he says.
This year’s fundraising events at the fire hall, including two giant annual bingos and its Labour Day fundraiser, were also cancelled.
With a second COVID-19 wave threatening to strike, Cummings says spring bingo remains “up in the air.”
Norman says his Bonavista horticulture group normally raises up to $10,000 each year to fund its creation and management of gardens around the community, but that little to no money remains in the coffers.
This, coupled with most volunteers being older than 50, means helpers have been slim as older members stay home to limit potential exposure.
Norman says many of the community groups he chairs have received no financial help from the provincial government and some even lost money, as paid staff completed applications that have gone without reply.
For Norman, it’s a frustrating result after months of hard work.
“I’ve been on the phone with various programs, which is frustrating, but I know it’s just a hard time to deliver funding,” he says.