The nonprofit has an opportunity to tell the story of how the organization adapted to tremendous external changes in the last year
In-person, all day donation drives transformed into "drive thru" versions, focusing now on fewer, more critical items to collect, where donors followed a route, stayed in their cars and volunteers (following protocols) took their donations from the trunks. Friends also resorted more to Amazon's wish list so donors could buy-donate items from home. Thus, Friends collected as much baby supplies as in past versions and a large number of new individual and corporate donors.
Friends' gala & show event also adapted to fewer guests but more expensive seating and also resorted to sponsors and partnerships with other nonprofits to make a bigger impact for all children in Latin America, and not only Venezuela. A sold-out event and great ROI for all nonprofits that participated.
At the institutional level, Friends focused on specific potential partners to bring in large donations of medical supplies & equipment, which is not collected from drives or other efforts. After several months in the vetting process, Orphan Grain Train and Heart to Heart International brought 21 hospital beds, 12 manual specialized wheelchairs, and the largest ever received volume of diverse medical supplies, such as PPE, lab materials, OTC items, etc.
The +40% in volume of humanitarian aid shipped to Venezuela also implied a stronger partnership with a current freight forwarding service company to outsource major logistic and operations of such in-kind donations, secure the shipment 7 delivery, all this with a new negotiated tariff that resulted in thousands in savings and again, high-level ratios of efficiency, where 98 cents of every dollar received by donors, was spent on the execution of the programs!