The COVID-19 pandemic limited businesses’ ability to operate and strained everyone’s finances. Fundraising efforts have not only struggled with people having less to give, the events they depend on to solicit donations were limited as well.

While some nonprofits weren’t able to do their normal annual fundraising, the generosity of the community helped them get through the year.

Nikki Hoellwarth, executive director of Mountain Spirit Habitat for Humanity, said it’s gotten “tremendous support from the community.”

Mountain Spirit managers had to shut down their shop on Bent Street for a month. While everyone was locked up in their homes, people filled the time with a lot of spring cleaning; that meant a lot of donations for Mountain Spirit when the store reopened in May.

“We were just rockin’ right after [we reopened]. It was a very good summer for us,” Hoellwarth said.

Mountain Spirit has never had an annual signature fundraising event, and organization leaders were in the process of initiating one this year. Planning began in early 2020 and momentum was picking up for a homeowner, building-related theme in October,

“We had the idea. We had the theme. We had the venue. It was going to be great,” Hoellwarth said. But the pandemic brought plans to a “screeching halt.”

While the organization could have plowed forward, the leaders didn’t want the inaugural event to be a dud, which Hoellwarth said she’s seen with some nonprofits that went ahead with fundraisers.

“Sometimes first annual events are not wildly successful. Sometimes it takes a couple years to get traction. So we decided just to hold off,” Hoellwarth said.

They’re still going to initiate their annual event, but it will now wait until next year.

Generous businesses

The signature fundraising event for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Northwest Wyoming is Bowling for Kids Sake, which was planned for April 18 — right in the middle of the lockdowns. The nonprofit often raises $8,000 or more from that one fundraiser.

“We use that funding throughout the year. So it’s pretty imperative,” said Program Director Sarah Schrickling.

Prior to the event and pandemic-related restrictions, volunteers went around asking businesses for sponsorships. They had about $4,000 raised when they found out they would have to cancel. They asked the businesses that donated if they wanted the money back, but Schrickling said all the businesses let Big Brothers Big Sisters keep the donations.

A lot of the donors were small businesses facing their own financial uncertainty at the time, and that says a lot about the community.

“It just felt incredibly generous,” Schrickling said.

Now that things are moving forward again, the organization is getting more volunteer involvement and it’s resuming monthly activities. They’re looking forward to next year’s Bowling for Kids Sake.

“Given the situation, we feel very fortunate,” Schrickling said.

Change is good

Powell Medical Foundation was lucky. Its signature annual event was the Mardi Gras banquet, which is held in February, right before the pandemic swept the country.

“We snuck that in right before they shut everything down,” said Megan Pfefferle, PMF executive director.

She’s found a silver lining in the struggle to hold fundraisers in a period of social distancing: It gets organizers to think differently about their events, to be creative and to get fundraising out of a rut. When the same fundraisers are held year after year, participation begins to wane and donations gradually decline or plateau.

“Change is a good thing. Sometimes people fall into doing it the same way year over year, because it’s been a successful event,” Pfefferle said.

In June, the medical foundation held a tournament at the Powell Golf Club, and it turned into a great success. Pfefferle thinks the fact people were overflowing with cabin fever after the lockdowns might have contributed to the high level of participation, but it also helps that the Powell community is so willing to pitch in to help where it’s needed.

“Even two days before, we weren’t sure we’d have enough golfers to make it happen. And then boom. It was a wonderful day,” Pfefferle said.

Pfefferle said she’s seen the PMF board really stretching their creativity to come up with new approaches to fundraising, and that could have some long-term benefits to the organization.

“Events are going to look different, but I think it’s a great opportunity,” she said.

The generosity of the community really fills in a lot during these times, Pfefferle said, and it’s “just a matter of asking.”

She’s getting the message out about everything that’s happening at Powell Valley Healthcare. Leaders there are remodeling the emergency department and building visitation centers at the long-term care facilities; they also installed a 3D mammogram machine, are doing improvements to their respiratory care facility and just hired a new cardiologist.

“It’s pretty impressive what a small town can pull off,” Pfefferle said.