Businesses, nonprofits look to the internet
Creativity needed to maintain services, retail
Exercise studios are conducting yoga and Pilates sessions on Facebook, nonprofits are shifting fundraisers online, and museums are looking into offering virtual tours.
The COVID-19 situation is changing every day and businesses and nonprofits are scrambling to keep up, but with disaster comes opportunity and the heads of these organizations and establishments are getting creative to navigate the new economic landscape.
Movewell Arcata, Om Shala Yoga and Inner Freedom Yoga are among the exercise studios that have made or are in the process of making their yoga and Pilates sessions available online.
Tamra James, owner of Movewell Arcata, was already starting to put videos up on YouTube before the COVID-19 outbreak, but having to close down her studio has shifted her focus entirely to working on creating online classes.
James has been hosting free Facebook Live Pilates sessions in the afternoon this week and had more than 20 people attend each session virtually.
“It’s one reason I love the Internet right now,” James said. ” … It’s definitely interesting times but it kicked me into gear to be creative.”
James is currently offering the sessions for free, but says eventually she might charge a subscription fee. At the moment, she’s receiving more donations than expected.
Nonprofits have begun shifting their operations as well. The Clarke Historical Museum will be putting up mini virtual tours on Facebook Live, according to a post on Facebook.
CASA of Humboldt had to cancel one of its biggest fundraisers, the 19th annual Big Night fundraiser, which Jeanette Todd, the organization’s development director, said provides 30% of its annual funding.
“The loss of 30% of income for us is devastating,” Todd said. “so in order to recoup some of those funds on the edge of a global pandemic, we had to think about how we can turn our Big Night auction around in a way that could work for us and the community.”
The nonprofit’s Board of Directors had an emergency meeting on Friday and decided it would be in the nonprofit’s best interest to come up with an online auction over the course of three days on its website, said Erika Benson, interim executive director of the nonprofit.
Like most organizations with volunteers over the age of 65, the operations at CASA of Humboldt have changed in other ways, too. The organization is having older volunteers speak with their kids through email, video chats, phone, texting or snail mail, instead of meeting in person, Benson said.
The nonprofit also has its own private playground and play room that are still available, too, they said.
“The community wants to see these nonprofits survive and we’re going to all have to get creative if we want to see that happen,” Todd said.
Bandon Taylor, owner of The Works record store, put up posters for sale on Facebook that he said he would deliver, but shifting entirely online would be problematic for his business.
“It would be helpful, but it wouldn’t fix the situation for me financially,” Taylor said. ” … It’s much better having regular daily brickand-mortar sales level than trying to rely on online sales, but I do have that option available to me.”
Finding something a customer might want delivered is possible, Taylor said, “but a lot of going to the record store is about coming in, digging through and seeing what you can find.”