Coronavirus has hit Milwaukee's nonprofits hard as money and resources dry up. Here's how they are fighting back.

Travis Landry is used to the nonprofit he helps manage being on the front lines in Milwaukee. WestCare Wisconsin provides services for kids through Milwaukee Public Schools, rehabs houses, holds sessions on preventing substance abuse and helps neighbors learn how to reduce crime.

But with the onset of the coronavirus, almost all that work has ended.

Now, WestCare is struggling just to keep its one-day-a-week food pantry operation going to serve people in its near north side neighborhood.

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The impact on Milwaukee's under-resourced communities has been massive.

"People are forgetting about the less fortunate because they’re not worried about the coronavirus — they lost hope three years ago," Landry said. "I hate to say it, but we’re going to create some mass hysteria if we don’t do things that need to be done for people who are sitting at home and got laid off."

Milwaukee nonprofits like WestCare have been forced to innovate so they can keep serving residents. Westcare, Program the Parks, Arts at Large, Cathedral Center and Riveredge Nature Center have all used partnerships, technology and virtual spaces to continue their work.

Even with help on the way from the United Way's Urgent Needs Fund and the Greater Milwaukee Foundation's MKE Responds fundraising effort, which are specifically designated for struggling nonprofits, many operators are concerned about where the money is going to come from so they can remain in business.

Very tight budgets, crippled programming 

Currently, the food pantry is WestCare's only operational service. Every Wednesday at 1 p.m., about 200 people show up, and Landry said he doesn't even want to consider shutting it down.

"If I don’t do the food pantry ... WestCare will be affected because we'll have a lot of food we have to throw in the garbage, and the community will be affected because they’re going to miss out on something they need."

Cathedral Center, meantime, has funding concerns of its own, said Executive Director Donna Rongholt-Migan.

The homeless shelter, which serves dozens of women and families with children, had originally budgeted for the crisis to last four weeks. Rongholt-Migan said the center could probably make it another four weeks, but after that, she'll have to start making hard decisions.

"I’m just spending this money," she said. "If it went into a third month or beyond, I’d have to consider reducing services, letting some staff go, borrowing money and all those extremes."

Rongholt-Migan said the center has $25,000 in unplanned expenses and $15,000 in lost income because she had to cancel a fundraiser. Even if she is able to hold the center's main fundraiser on July 29, she knows it is unlikely donors — who are hurting financially themselves — will be able to give as much.

"This isn’t going to just end for us when shelter at home is done. It’s going to have financial and programmatic ramifications for us … 12 months from now."

Program the Parks founder Vaun Mayes is used to working with skeletal resources but the coronavirus also crippled his programming.

"We're usually out in the parks servicing youth that would be in those spaces, providing meals, activities to do, intervention and mediation as far as community violence," he said. "We can’t do those programs right now and ... the only thing we can focus on doing is trying to make sure (they have) food and supplies at home."

With the help of donations from Just One More Ministry, he's been putting fruits, vegetables, canned goods, meats, bread, milk and other groceries together in food packages.

Although he lacks the infrastructure and partners that larger nonprofits have, Mayes has a large social media following, which helps.

"To not have the partnerships or support where we can provide that stuff right away, we have to go out and fundraise or look and see how we can get it," he said.

Putting innovation and technology to work

Some nonprofits have chosen to "go virtual."

Riveredge Nature Center, which often partners with Milwaukee's Urban Ecology Center to expose MPS students to the outdoors, closed its visitors center and youth programs.

Executive Director Jessica Jens said the cancellations are expected to total $30,000 in losses up to April 24 and even more after that.

Recently, the nonprofit canceled its maple sugaring program, which usually brings out about 3,000 people.

"We understand that is the right choice," she said. "That’s been very detrimental for us not being able to connect people with those programs and (losing) our earned revenue. Our role is bringing people together to inspire an appreciation and engagement of the natural world. So when we can’t bring people together, that’s a significant challenge."

But the nonprofit has created new ways to reach people. Staff have launched a naturalist series on social media and are asking residents to virtually join them on their annual pancake breakfast this Saturday.

"We want to use the healing powers of the natural world to improve people’s physical and mental health," she said.

Arts At Large, which partners with Milwaukee Public Schools to bring visual and performance art experiences to Milwaukee youths, closed the cafe it opened in July and laid off cafe staff in response to the pandemic.

Teri Sullivan, founder and CEO of Arts At Large, and Sean Kiebzak, COO of the organization said the coronavirus came at a time when they were trying to recoup money spent building their cafe.

In addition, the program has also lost artists in residence, college interns working as part-time instructional coaches and high school students in culinary and other programs.

However, instead of canceling events, Arts At Large has taken them online.

"We’re working on a plan to provide online and virtual experiences,"  Kiebzak said. "(On) Saturday, we’re going to have artists streaming on Facebook Live. We have celebrities every Wednesday night when there’s going to be some storytelling and they’re going to read children’s books."

John Gurda, John McGivern, Shannon Sims, Dasha Kelly and Margaret Rozga have all signed up, Kiebzak said.

That positive response is a ray of hope for Sullivan.

"We know Arts At Large is not in this alone. None of us are in this alone."

How has coronavirus affected your life?

Contact Talis Shelbourne at (414) 403-6651 or tshelbourn@jrn.com. Follow her on Twitter at @talisseer and message her on Facebook at @talisseer.

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