A COVID Silver Lining for CED Professionals: Innovation

<p>Last October a CED post highlighted the importance of understanding the capacity of nonprofits who work with local governments to provide needed social services. The focus at the time was on the program participation tipping point, where community partners disengaged from participating in a program because they lacked the capacity to be able to meet program guidelines and requirements. The program in question was one that provided healthy meals for school-age children during the summer, when they couldn’t access the school cafeteria as they would do during the school year.</p> <p>The post presented four key aspects of organizational capacity: Administrative, Financial, Infrastructure, and Personnel. As explained in that post, an example of administrative burden would be required paperwork in applications or reporting. An example of financial burden would be required financial security, match, or ability to carry costs. An example of infrastructure burden would be the need to have storage or transportation capability. An example of personnel burden would be the need to provide staff or volunteers, with or without a particular expertise.</p> <p>Unfortunately, COVID has forced a much brighter spotlight on the key issue of nonprofit capacity. When schools were forced to close this spring, almost 1,000,000 children across North Carolina who would normally receive free and reduced-price lunch through the school system still needed to be fed, regardless of an unfolding pandemic. Schools, local governments, nonprofits, and scores of volunteers had to develop entirely new systems to meet this need in a matter of days. What was different this time was the significant new capacity issues that emerged.</p> <p>In terms [...]</p>