The nonprofit has an opportunity to tell the story of how the organization adapted to tremendous external changes in the last year.
The pandemic, conflict abroad, and continued economic challenges have affected many in our community, and nonprofits like JFCS were no different. Some changes, like the above, were negative. Others created opportunities for our agency to grow, expand, and innovate, and JFCS has risen to the occasion in several instances to adapt and respond to external changes in support of our mission and community.
When faced with increased hunger in our community, JFCS engaged with passionate, dedicated supporters to expand our pantry’s capacity, and continue to serve thousands of children, adults, and seniors. We continue both remote and in-person clinical counseling for continued safety and flexibility. In light of increased mental health challenges and psychiatric care needs among clients, we onboarded a psychiatric nurse practitioner to add crucial medication management and diagnosis support for our clinical team.
We established a family case management program to provide expanded wrap-around support and help those with significant, co-occurring challenges to their health and well-being. We’ve increased our outreach and community engagement work, partnering with local organizations in discussions and presentations to raise awareness of pressing community issues (hunger, mental health issues, financial needs) and resources available.
We've extended these changes to how we adapt to technology, branding, and the digital world. We've updated our website for greater usability, adding a more mobile-friendly interface and streamlined functionalities for requesting services and support. We are moving to cloud-based storage to better secure our records in an emergency.
In response to economic challenges affecting traditional funding models, we continued to diversify our funding through grantsmanship, the continuation of our successful Annual Fund, and our focus on Legacy giving to secure our nonprofit’s financial standing for the longer term.