The pandemic has impacted all kinds of industries including how, and how much, we give to charities and nonprofits.

This week on Nevada Week, we look at the state of philanthropy in Southern Nevada.

♪♪♪ Support for Nevada Week is provided by Senator William H. Hernstadt and additional supporting sponsors.

(Kipp Ortenburger) Welcome to Nevada Week.

One might say it's been the best of times and the worst of times for our local charities.

Our nonprofits have helped many of the critical needs and gaps throughout the pandemic, but they've done so in the midst of so many challenges like closures and have confronted their own existential challenges in tight financial times.

But large federal relief packages and our local philanthropic community have stepped up to support their work.

Well, during the crisis, the question is now how, or will, philanthropy evolve during potentially a very long road to recovery?

Joining us for this discussion are Brian Burton, president and CEO of Three Square; Liz Ortenburger, CEO of SafeNest, who is a family member of mine; Julian High, president and CEO of the United Way of Southern Nevada and Troy Heard, founding artistic director of Majestic Repertory Theatre.

Thank you so much for being here; we really appreciate it.

I want to give you a little bit of context.

I don't know if you know this, but about a year ago, we did a similar show.

We had philanthropic experts on the giving side come in.

We thought it'd be interesting to have charities on to talk again about where philanthropy is, and I want to start with our first main discussion topic question.

Liz, I want to start with you.

Is local philanthropy coming out of the pandemic?

I know we're not out of it yet, but where we are now, is it better or is it worse off?

(Liz Ortenburger) So what we're seeing is a larger amount of gifts but a fewer amount of donors.

So we do a year-over-year fundraiser in October for Domestic Violence Awareness Month, and what we saw was an increase in the number of dollars given but about 30% fewer donors gave to that campaign.

-Interesting.

Brian, your perspective.

(Brian Burton) Three Square has had just an unusually exceptional year with 15,000 new donors that came out during COVID.

Typically, donors in a crisis just give one time; half of those new donors have already given multiple gifts.

So I think because of the nature of our mission of feeding and the television exposure, we've had an inordinate amount of philanthropy which we're very grateful for, but that's about to change in 2022.

-And why do you say that?

-Because all of the experts and the folks in the know say that in 2022 philanthropy will be down in every category, individuals, foundation, government, except for corporate.

Corporate kind of got set back on their heels during COVID, but now they're going to come back up to where they were pre-COVID.

-And that's a great point, and I wanted to-- some of the data, most of the giving areas when we're talking about individual donors, foundations, corporations, and bequests are also part of that as well, being in your wills and trusts, all up except corporate nationally.

We seem to be locally, according to the Moonridge Group, to be kind of on an even level, but you're saying we might see some drops there.

Julian, where do you see where we're at now?

Again, are we in a stronger position or a weaker position?

(Julian High) Well, let me just preface this by saying that I'm probably one of the newest members here of the philanthropic community in terms of my being at United Way, but I believe that we have some real opportunities and some real challenges to think about what philanthropy means for this community and how we're going to respond to the challenge at hand.

I think that we're still feeling out what the effects of the pandemic have been, and there's still more to come, I believe, in terms of more things to figure out.

-And you provide such an interesting perspective because you are new to this community.

Brian and Liz both have been involved in philanthropy here for so long, so you offer an interesting perspective.

I mean because, you know, again you've only been here several months, but I mean, what are you seeing in the philanthropic community more so?

-Well, I mean for United Way, Southern Nevada anyway, we were gifted with an extraordinary amount of money from MacKenzie Scott when she did her round of philanthropic giving, so from that perspective, when we think that the possibility of hope sort of sits there.

But I think that we really owe it to our community to understand what is it that we're meant to do as a philanthropic community and where are the gaps, and how far are we away from really fulfilling the needs of the community?

I think that we have some work to do in the nonprofit sector in determining that.

-And Julian, I want to get back to that big gift in a second.

Troy, I want to get your perspective too.

Another interesting thing is if we look at the different sectors of the nonprofit sector, all increased in giving until we get to arts and culture.

(Troy Heard) Absolutely.

We sit on a completely different narrative.

I mean, everyone I'm sitting with at this table is social service.

You know, in many ways people look at the arts as the fringe.

It's entertainment, it's not necessary.

But unlike the other nonprofits during the pandemic, I mean, you were still in operation because your need in this community rose.

We shut down.

We were not able to operate.

So at the very beginning, we saw individual donors jump up and say hey, we're going to help you, we're going to save you, but no one had any clue this was going to last 18-plus months, and we're just now getting back into operation with lots of COVID measures, so it is not the same.

We're seeing some money trickle in, but there's still this fear of what happens if you shut down again.

I mean, we're kind of at the-- we're getting the short end of the stick in this story, unfortunately.

-Yes, it's a great point, and obviously very much effective of any type of business that needs to have their doors open.

Liz, I want to go to you too.

I mean, you're running a shelter, and this is another issue here too.

The variability of where COVID is right now and, you know, we just talked to a public official on our last show that talked about until we get to a certain vaccination rate, there is still too much unpredictability and uncertainty in this.

How does that affect your donors?

-So let me start by saying we run a 100-bed main campus, but we've been overflowing into 50-plus hotel rooms.

My monthly hotel bill is $60- to $100,000 just to house anyone struggling with domestic violence that has a lethality score that shows they're going near to homicide.

In the last 12 months just in Las Vegas proper, we've had 17 homicides related to domestic violence, and countywide it's closer to 25.

So the need is real that all of our numbers are up 20 to 50% over the pre-pandemic, and we were the third most dangerous place in the country prior to the pandemic.

So this has been incredibly intensive in our world.

SafeNest chose not to decrease services in any way.

We told the health department thank you, but we don't need you to come in and do an inspection.

We're going to handle this.

We'll put in barriers, we'll do what we can, but to reduce a bed would mean reducing-- or increasing the possibility that someone be murdered or homeless that night if we couldn't provide the space.

So our donors related to that message.

I will tell you what our donors related to more was this is an investment.

We have a solid business plan.

We are a nonprofit that has been here since 1977.

Our P&L is strong; we can weather this.

A gift in us is not a gift for survival, it's a gift to increase the services that are absolutely necessary right now.

-And how do the donors react to that?

I reference back to the show we did about a year ago, and what we were talking about is that donors were giving more but they were giving more to the basic needs, and they were also giving you just general operations.

You're talking about planning and strategy.

Are your donors receptive to that?

-You know, one of the things that increased for us over the last year-- I think Brian is in this boat as well-- is the understanding of the food crisis, the hunger crisis, and the crisis of violence in people's homes increased significantly with media awareness not just in Las Vegas, but country and really globally.

That helps increase donors' understanding, and when they can come to an agency like mine and see a business plan that makes sense, they can see an agency that has legs and stability, it's a great-- this is an investment that I know when I make it, 90% of these dollars are going to go directly to providing a service to save someone's life and help them recover from domestic violence.

So it's been very helpful.

-Brian, I want to go to you.

The awareness is a big part of this, but let's talk about donations are not just money.

They're in kind, of course, a big part of what Three Square is doing, being that you're a food pantry.

But I want to talk about the volunteer aspect of this as well.

We had you on the show two years ago prior to COVID, the end of 2019, and you talked a lot about volunteers on that show.

I believe if I have the number right that your volunteers equal about 70 full-time staff members that you have.

-You have a great memory.

-Am I right on that?

Well, there you go.

-That's awesome.

Nobody remembers that.

(laughter) I cheated.

I watched it again.

But here you are, during closures you don't have these volunteers, and I want to bring it back to donors here.

You said your volunteers are so important to educate because those volunteers eventually do become donors themselves.

And you don't have that.

How has that affected where you are now?

-I think that's the biggest cost for us.

As I was listening to Troy talking about arts and culture, which has been decimated and I've been amazed at the survivability and resilience of that sector, but for volunteers, we shut down and so you're right.

That was 50,000 volunteers a year pre-pandemic, the largest platform I believe in the state, and we've invested nine paid staff people into managing that, and it shut down.

So we had to repurpose staff to do what volunteers used to do which was very expensive, a new expense for us.

We are reopening, but it's not what it was so we're-- to Julian's earlier point, we're figuring out what this new terrain looks like, and it is kind of like a Lewis and Clark adventure.

It's just something surprising and new, challenging and joyous all at the same time.

But this community, I think, when we do get an understanding of this pandemic, will come back to volunteer in record numbers, and I just look forward to that day.

That will feel like paradise to me.

-Julian, speaking of record numbers, you mentioned the MacKenzie Scott donation, $10 million from the previous-- the co-founder of Amazon, but it's an interesting challenge.

I mean, having that much money is a great thing for an organization, but I'm sure it brings a lot of challenges and then how to use that money correctly.

Is that a challenge when you're receiving such an influx of cash?

-Well, for us it was not a challenge because the needs in the community far outweigh the $10 million that MacKenzie Scott was able to so brilliantly and generously give to United Way.

I think during that cycle, we had $17 million in asks, and that was just in that period of time when we received that gift.

So if you look at the $10 million gift, which is a very amazing gift, versus the $17 million in need as United Way, at least coming to us as United Way, there was a pretty big gap there and we needed to-- and that has me thinking, what's the longer term sort of implications of what we need to do with nonprofits in the philanthropic community here, and that's where I get that concern from.

-To piggyback on that, I think the city reported out as they are moving forward with their ARPA funding; they have $128 million.

They had $2.2 billion in asks.

-ARPA being American Rescue Plan Act, one of the federal bills.

-Yes.

So the need is massive everywhere, but Las Vegas is particularly under-resourced from typical state-level funding schemes.

-Troy, I want to come to you.

This is a very interesting challenge, I guess.

There is a lot of federal relief funding, as you mentioned, donors may be giving but in a different way.

If they're giving more now, if we have impending issues in our economy later on, they might not be giving later which presents an interesting challenge of using the money now, maybe hiring people on that you might not be able to sustain later on.

Is that a challenge in your nonprofit?

-I mean, for us personally, we have a very small staff and we roll project to project, so we hire on for each project.

We stay very small for a reason.

That's the only way we were able to survive throughout this pandemic.

But to be able to get back up to our normal operating level, you know, it just took a huge kickstart.

Fortunately, Chuck Schumer's SVOG came through, you know, the Shuttered Venues Operator Grant, if you didn't know.

It was originally called Save Our Stages which is a huge lifeline to thousands of presenters and promoters and producers throughout the country.

We were one of the very last recipients of it, but it came through and we're grateful for it.

But again I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist, and I've never seen anything like this before.

We haven't seen this in our civilization for what, a century plus, you know, and I'm a bit gun shy, you know, going forward.

What's going to happen?

Our immediate goal is to build up a reserve again.

We went through that unfortunately during the 18 months, but just trying to figure out what's next and how do we navigate and move forward.

And how do we find-- honestly, most of our revenue comes from single-ticket sales and merch and concessions.

As a nonprofit in the arts, our giving levels are very low.

I mean, it's about 10% of our entire operating.

We're trying to just climb back to that.

I mean, we're just getting back in.

Fortunately, we had a very successful run of a brand new show for the past few months called "The Sandman" which brought a lot of attention to us and brought a lot of new donors but we're not back to 2019 yet, and I think it's going to be quite a while.

-Yes.

Interesting though, you know, how that is somewhat reflective of what we're seeing in the grander economy here.

We're seeing these gaming revenue numbers that are record breaking.

We have more people out.

It's obviously impacting you, but not at that same level.

Very, very interesting.

What a great segue.

Let's move into just kind of where we're going on this road to recovery.

Liz, I want to go to you first.

I mean, when we're looking at post-pandemic, post-recovery, charities and philanthropy are going to have to work together more closely.

What's really important there?

-You know, I think it is important for those that are providing the dollars, providing the philanthropy, to understand more deeply that they are investing in businesses.

I think oftentimes people look at a nonprofit and say charity, or they give it-- we are in a different tax bracket by the IRS.

We don't have folks that we give stock portfolios to.

What you are doing is you are investing in a product and a service that is critical for the safety net of our city, but that requires understanding the business that is there.

It is really difficult for nonprofits to get a $20,000 or $30,000 gift that is heavily restricted.

Believe in the business that is there, provide unrestricted dollars, and then ask how that's being used but don't dictate because I can guarantee you from the smallest to the largest nonprofits, we understand how our businesses are run, and restricting gifts makes it just-- it's a fantastic thing, but it's really difficult to spend it in a way that a donor absolutely wants sometimes.

-And I think we saw that with the MacKenzie Scott gifts which is largely unrestricted with a three-year requirement, just that we report each year.

That's been incredibly important for us and our ability to help partners that we fund in the community.

I mean, United Way, we don't have an actual direct-services business model.

We're helping to provide funds for folks, and it was absolutely inspiring to see the MacKenzie Scott gift came with very few restrictions which gave us a lot of flexibility and in turn our partner agencies as well.

-Yes.

You're in such an interesting place, an interesting perspective because of course you are receiving gifts, but then you're also regranting those gifts or giving those gifts out to the community.

So I ask you on that side of the giving side here, strategically, are you looking at more open gifts and looking at more of these operational expenses or are you looking more strategic on how this money should be used, could be used in the best way?

-Well, we've tried to take a holistic approach, and the team that I get the privilege of leading really came up with the idea, that we wanted to increase our diversity of giving so we wanted to give to different kinds of a more broad base of people, and we wanted to do so in ways that could maybe help build, start to build, or make the case for infrastructure investment, which I think is to Liz's point that we really need to start doing some of those things here in Las Vegas more holistically.

-Brian, I want to come to you.

I'm referencing Gian Brosco, the CEO of the Nevada Community Foundation.

He talked about how when we were in the pandemic last year, fear and uncertainty really drove donations, and what he's seeing a lot from the donor base at Community Foundation is they're now looking at more strategic, which I tie strategic to what Liz was talking about, maybe more restricted types of gifts here.

For an organization like Three Square, how important then is this balance between restricted and nonrestricted funds?

-Well, I echo what's already been said.

The unrestricted funds give us as leaders the freedom to really target those investments in the best way possible, and I think all of us want to send the message to the viewers today that we are emerging from this pandemic leaner and more efficient than ever.

The silver lining is we are all-- I mean, Three Square's direct is 96 cents of every dollar goes directly into programs.

It's very high, and that increased during COVID.

So I think the philanthropists should be holding us to higher standards.

I think the donor community should study the Charity Navigator ratings and do their research.

But as Liz said, if you can trust the leader of that organization, look at their board, most of us have extraordinary boards, then don't be shy about giving.

And if you have an IRA, you can do the charitable gift on that too before the end of the year.

Talk to your financial advisor.

But we work hard every single day, all of us in the nonprofit community, to earn the trust and confidence of this community, and I think in Las Vegas, we've done a terrific job of that.

Never satisfied, never complacent, always striving to do better.

But I think the donors should ask a lot of questions but then give unrestricted if you can.

-If you can, yes.

Troy, I want to talk a little bit about kind of the modernization, I guess is maybe the best word to talk about this, or just where the new trends are in communication with donors.

Of course we're coming out of COVID where so much cultivation has been virtually, and now we might be in a place where a lot of donors are saying you know what?

I'd like to kind of stick to the virtual meeting here instead of in person.

But let's not forget we are in a culture here in Vegas that is so much in person, and that really does go against the grain there.

So I guess my question to you is as you look in the future of how you're going to be cultivating your donors, is that more on a virtual platform or are you still back to in person?

-You know, coming from performing arts and theater, something we discovered during the lockdown of the pandemic is we can increase accessibility.

Come to Majestic, our small storefront.

Go to the Smith Center, you're limited to that many people in that room for that specific amount of time.

But what we discovered was hey, we have this great backlog of shows we filmed.

We have new ways of telling stories via Zoom.

We can get an audience member across the world.

And hey, if they love what we're doing virtually, why can't they be a donor?

You know, we're not limited to this regional anymore; we can go global.

I mean, that's something that we can do differently than other nonprofits, you know, that could actually benefit us.

So coming out of this pandemic yes, we are absolutely back in person because that's the nature of it.

That's what we've done for over a thousand years.

But moving forward, we're going to take this new technology and expand and increase accessibility and my goodness, that's so important.

What I mean-- -I'm sorry, yes; please continue.

-I mean, that's how I got into it.

I'm from the middle of-- I'm from a small town in Georgia.

I wasn't going to the Lincoln Center or the Smith Center or we didn't have a Majestic.

I was watching videotapes of Sweeney Todd and Into the Woods and the Bolshoi Ballet, and that was my exposure, on VHS.

You know, that is the accessibility we can increase, you know, and people who can't afford a theater ticket can afford a virtual ticket.

Those who physically cannot access the theater can watch it from their homes.

And like I said, we're going to cultivate a new donor base off of that.

-It's so interesting how technology can be leveraged in that way.

And then Liz and Brian both, I want to bring into the conversation because food insecurity and domestic violence is not something that is a state or local issue.

We're seeing it everywhere.

So I mean, do you have maybe more connections to more national funding or maybe even international funding?

-So interestingly enough, I did a presentation for the U.S. Embassy in Kazakhstan around domestic violence which will lead to a larger speaking platform and much more opportunities; however, this is one of the things about agencies like mine that receive federal and state funding.

You are somewhat restricted.

So within our jurisdiction is a little sliver of land above Mesquite and before you hit Utah.

That's Arizona.

We have quite a few victims and perpetrators out of that small strip of land.

It is constantly scrutinized at the state level as to whether or not we're able to serve those clients.

So I think there are some-- I think that the question is at the level the federal level around VAwA, VOCA and other funding mechanisms and then our state level, what does it look like if we go across state borders?

Right now it would be problematic administratively for grants.

-VOCA, victim of... -Victims of Crime Act, VAWA is Violence Against Women Act.

-Yes.

Thanks for bringing up policy which is a whole new topic.

We probably should be focusing mostly on the policy side on Nevada Week here, but thank you; I think a future show.

We've got about a minute left.

Brian, I want to bring in events here.

You know, we went through virtual events, and now of course we are seeing in-person events, such a very important part to fundraising here too.

Where are events going to go here?

-Well, I think we're cautiously experimenting with that.

I know we have a Fashion for Three Square event we've canceled the last two years.

We are planning on having that on May 7th so we hope we can do it.

I think this has also impacted philanthropy.

We really need to focus on really growing individual donors and moving forward.

Events are fine but it's a lot of work, and sometimes not a big profit on that.

So I think we all just have to do a better job at getting individuals engaged in our mission and helping them see the impact of what they do and understand that they hold the keys to our future.

-Well, the holidays are known to many as the giving season when they open their wallets to those in need.

The Nevada Week team checked out an event in Laughlin that brought more than just gifts to school kids in the rural community.

In a darkened school auditorium in Laughlin, Nevada, students from Bennett Elementary eagerly await the start of this year's holiday celebration.

"Clap once if you can hear me."

Bennett Elementary has just over 300 students, and it's the only K-sixth grade school in Laughlin, Nevada, a small town 90 miles from Las Vegas.

(Dawn Estes) So we're a Title I school; 100% of our students receive free lunch, right, so we are high need.

Thankfully there are those who step up to help fill that need at Bennett and other Clark County Schools this holiday season.

(Bob Ellis) This year we bought 5,200 pairs of Skecher tennis shoes and 10,400 pairs of socks and 4,000 toys for these schools.

Some of these kids, I hate to say this, but it might be the only present they get at Christmas time.

(cheering) (Jennifer Drescher) This event is amazing.

It means so much not only for the kids to receive the things they're getting but for them to understand Mr. and Mrs. Ellis and their generosity.

It's just an incredible feeling.

For 16 years Henderson residents Bob and Sandy Ellis have served as financial benefactors to numerous schools in the Clark County School District.

-What better way to spend money than for the kids?

This year Bennett Elementary students and staff were happy to celebrate the holidays together.

Simply being together was a gift unto itself.

Wow.

It's been a hard year and a half, two years of not being together with family and friends, and I think that's one thing just even with having this event, the kids love it, the adults love it.

It just brings back that spirit with everybody.

One more time!

♪♪♪ And for philanthropists like Bob and Sandy Ellis, the spirit of giving never ends.

The couple will provide for those in need long into the future through the Bob and Sandy Ellis Charitable Fund.

For Nevada Week, I'm Heather Caputo.

Thank you so much for that report, Heather, and thank you as always for joining us this week on Nevada Week.

For any of the resources discussed on this show, please visit our website at vegaspbs.org/nevadaweek.

You can also always follow us on Facebook and Twitter at @nevadaweek.

Thanks for joining us, and have a safe and happy holiday season.

♪♪♪