Virus hurting nonprofits, too

The mission and success of Utah’s nearly 10,000 nonprofits have been made extremely challenging by the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus and its spillover into the financial markets. That’s according to a recent survey conducted by the Utah Nonprofits Association (UNA) among its members. The impact is “threatening lives, jobs and the community safety net staffed and supported by Utah’s nonprofits,” the association said.

The survey, conducted earlier this month, collected 301 responses from nonprofit leaders.

“Nonprofits protect society’s most vulnerable people. They provide food, shelter, child and elder care, support to survivors of abuse and hope to the people most harmed by the pandemic. The economic, health and social fallout from the need to contain the virus impacts the ability of these organizations to care for their clients and to finance their operations,” the UNA concluded from the survey results.

Seventy-five percent of survey participants labeled the impact of the COVID-19 on programs, services or general operations as high. That number rises with the size of the nonprofit. For organizations with budgets of over $5 million, the number increased to 87.5 percent.

A vast majority of nonprofits (89.7 percent) reported that they were eliminating programming in response to the virus.

According to the survey, only 21.4 percent of respondents have nine months or more of reserves. Most of the nonprofits responding (59.2 percent) reported cash reserves of fewer than six months.