Cultural Roundtable group developing plan to help non-profits through pandemic

January 8, 2021 @ 9:43 amCOVID-19, News

With most community events cancelled or drastically scaled back due to the 19 pandemic, the majority of local non-profit groups responding to a Town of Minto Cultural Roundtable survey are reporting a decrease in revenue. The roundtable group is working on an action plan to assist local organizations. This bale sculpture reflects the unfortunate cancellation of the 2020 Harriston-Minto Fall Fair due to COVID-19. Advertiser file photo

MINTO – An action plan to help local non-profit groups recover from COVID-19 pandemic impacts is under development here.

Economic development manager Belinda Wick-Graham told council at the Jan. 5 meeting that 19 local non-profit organizations completed a survey on COVID-19 impacts on the sector.

Results indicated:

  • the majority reported a decrease in revenue, though the amount of revenue lost per organization varied greatly;
  • the majority of organizations indicated the effects of COVID-19 somewhat decreased their operational costs;
  • the majority are not adding new income strategies between now and June 2021;
  • many organizations appreciate Town of Minto support in terms of promotions; and
  • events planned by organizations have decreased significantly since the pandemic began.

“As to be expected, revenues pretty much dropped across the board, varying amounts depending on the organization. Nobody’s really planning anything to offset that,” Wick-Graham explained.

However, she added, “A few groups did apply for some funding, but not too many.

“And going down the road, people are looking for the town to provide training around different online platforms, as well as a lot of help in terms of promotion when they can do events again.”

Wick-Graham said the Cultural Roundtable group would begin to work on an action plan to help local groups based on the information obtained through the survey.

“The survey results were quite interesting,” said Mayor George Bridge.

“It’s interesting to see what the needs are out there and what can help, because we don’t want to lose any of these groups that make up our cultural group and certainly we want to look to see what we can do to help them.”

He added, “We want to make sure these cultural groups stay whole.”

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