Guest column

4 challenges Houston nonprofits are facing during the COVID-19 crisis — and how they can pivot to stay afloat

Nonprofits are being forced to rethink the way they traditionally reached the community and their donors. Getty Images

As nonprofits struggle to keep funding, staffing, and services afloat during the coronavirus pandemic, Houston organizations are having to get innovative with their fundraising and service to their communities.

My organization, the Easter Seals Greater Houston — which has been a leading provider of services for Veterans, people of all ages with any type of disability and their family members for over seventy years — has decided to pivot its annual Walk With Me fundraiser that is typically held at The Houston Zoo. It's just one of the difficult changes and decisions we are having to make. Here are four things we are keeping in m keep in mind when making a digital pivot as a nonprofit that provides mental health and therapeutic services.

The financial impact on the organization and its staff

As Easter Seals Greater Houston provides face-to-face services for military families and people with disabilities, we've already lost significant billable revenue that will not be recaptured. While there is hope that help may come soon, many nonprofits are being forced to lay people off.

The Easter Seals Greater Houston has already instituted a 10 percent pay cut for remaining employees with the hopes that we do not have to lose more staff. We are seeing this all over the country and city of Houston, as huge organizations such as the entire Theater District Houston shutter in the wake of COVID-19 and the current devastation of the oil and gas industry. Houston area philanthropy will be particularly hard hit as wealthy individuals and foundations make most of their gifts from funds earned or based on the market or oil and gas.

As such, all NPOs should be focusing on communication with their current funders — private and corporate foundations, letting them know how they are addressing the needs, and how their already committed dollars are helping with funding or asking if they can reallocate to new more pressing priorities.

Organizations can also demonstrate their focus on funding by applying for emergency assistance if applicable such as the new United Way Fund, following the local and national Association of Fundraising Professionals — they have mentors helping right now, and — if federal and state dollars are at risk — now is probably the most important time ever to galvanize supporters, volunteers, board members and staff.

Above and beyond all — do not stop communicating to your individual donors. If anything, ramp it up.

Fundraising digitally

As the development director of Easter Seals Greater Houston, I already face the challenge of less than five percent of charitable giving going to the disability sector, despite the fact that one in four people lives with a disability.

Like all good development officers, I start my elevator speech with the misnomer that is disability. Everyone has a stereotype in their head and disability is so much LARGER than that. Our lives are touched by it every day and demand that our services continue to increase, while funding continues to decrease.

So, with that in mind, we are not going to let COVID-19 defeat our fundraising, our programs, our events — it is too important to our programming and clients. Thankfully, our lives already exist and depend on the internet, online information, and telemedicine. And greater than that, our clients with disabilities also rely on communication boards, eye gaze and voice control technology and apps to help with just about everything.

Nonprofits already use many online tools and naturally our first instinct is to "go virtual" with everything. I see many of my counterparts are online and bringing clients and supporters donation opportunities, updated website pages for the ever-changing COVID-19 information, general communications, real-time information with apps and tutorials for you to stay healthy, calm and engaged, and even events, like Easter Seals Houston Walk With Me.

Going virtual for our walk took a heroic effort and days of dizzying decisions and changes, but in the end we are confident that it will be worth the effort. Overnight, we have seen NPOs make agonizing decisions — to cancel, reschedule, or go virtual. I am expecting it to change the way we all think about our events in the future and truly believe that incorporating virtual efforts can only mean an increase in fundraising efforts for years to come and an opportunity to provide inclusive options for involvement.

Serving the community online

Most Easter Seals Greater Houston's services and programs are provided face-to-face and even though we've gone to telehealth for some, such as for clients who live in rural areas or do not have a means of transportation, our staff have always thought in-person services to be better.

Over a month ago, we began adapting our services to keep our staff and clients safe while continuing to provide as many services as possible through telehealth and virtual meet-ups.In all honesty, I think we have all seen the light. We don't have to worry about canceled appointments for babies or staff being sick for Early Intervention or Children's Therapy visits anymore.

BridgingApps.org, our technology program, has especially shined for us all, sharing an amazing amount of online resources and ways to stay connected (follow them on Facebook to see new ideas, and resources daily). Its YouTube hits have more than doubled for people needing help to connect and we are so grateful to be the place they trust. Our families are already stressed to the hilt because of limited insurance coverage and other financial burdens, and now they have the added mental health issues with the current crisis outside of their already stressed lives.

We do have programs that truly can't be done virtually, but our amazing staff are still devoted to figuring out temporary work-arounds through the amazing technology they have at their fingertips. Our families have shown more strength and resilience than ever and we are incredibly proud of them too.

For the last year or so all anyone had to do was turn the TV on to see a host of celebrities talking about apps for mental health, using the telehealth options of insurance policies and connecting remotely with loved ones who are home-bound. The future is here and we have been forced, not gently prodded, to take note, to adapt and in the end strengthen NPOs who take advantage of the tools.

For example, using Zoom for board members and other key stakeholders for ease of their already overflowing calendars and commitments; HIPAA compliant video conferencing systems for NPOs supporting clients medically; podcasts and platforms supporting education, students of all ages and so much more. The amount of online resources for NPOs means that we can have a farther reach, help more, and overall grow stronger and more adaptable as organizations.

Working thought medicaid and insurance at this time

Through many Easter Seals Greater Houston programs including Children's Therapy Program, Mental Health Counseling and more, we bill for services. When we first began prepping a month ago for tele-health, providing services this way hadn't even been approved.

Technically, we can now bill for our services through Medicaid but at a much reduced rate. Some insurance companies have authorized this, but many have not, which translates to yet another loss of funding. Our Early Intervention and Children's Therapy Staff have embraced it. Every day we see emails about telehealth trends and positive experiences with virtual health. The numbers our Early Childhood Intervention program alone delivered in March are stunning. We have enrolled 105 children, delivered 3187.63 hours in direct services, delivered 592.37 hours in Case Management, and 366.50 hours in Evaluations (that's new babies getting services).

Many other NPOs offering Early Childhood Intervention across the state of Texas are on-board with telehealth options as well. I can think of several other federal and state supported programs such as Early Childhood Education, Head Start, Work Force and Literacy Initiatives that are and should be moving to this virtual format. These programs all answer to our state and federal governments with very specific requirements and measurement outputs. Moving to virtual and online isn't an overnight decision within these guidelines — protocol, restrictions and ultimately funding are at risk. Due diligence is the key and lots of homework must be done — online or not.

If you're looking to support locally, you can take a walk, stroll, or roll around your own block regularly between now and April 25 to support the virtual Walk With Me program — use the hashtag #WWMVirtually and tag @EasterSealsGreaterHouston when you do. Your participation ensures that Easter Seals Greater Houston can continue its mission of providing life-changing services for veterans, children and adults with all types of disabilities. Join Walk With Me Virtually today by registering online at walkwithmehouston.org.

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Kelly Klein is the development director of Easter Seals Greater Houston.

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The Texas Medical Center Innovation Factory has named the 16 companies making up the inaugural cohort in the Innovate UK Global Incubator Programme. Photo via tmc.edu

Sixteen digital health and medical device startups founded in the United Kingdom have been selected for a customized accelerator at the Texas Medical Center's Innovation Factory.

In partnership with Innovate UK, TMCi created the Innovate UK Global Incubator Programme, a new accelerator that supports UK businesses as they build their United States go-to-market plan. The program builds the BioBridge relationship between TMC and the UK that was originally established five years ago.

“The TMC UK BioBridge program was launched with the UK Department for Business and Trade in 2018 to serve as a gateway for advancing life sciences and foster innovation and research between our two countries," says Ashley McPhail, chief external affairs and administration officer for TMC, in a news release. "We saw an opportunity to work with Innovate UK to develop a larger program with the UK after the success of the 11 companies that previously participated in our health tech accelerator."

The 16 companies will participate in the program from June to November. The cohort is expected to arrive in Houston on June 5 and have access to TMCi's facilities, network of mentors and potential clients, funding, potential customers, and curated programing — all while being a unique entry point into the US. The new offering joins three other globally recognized curriculums: Biodesign, Accelerator for Cancer Therapeutics, and Health Tech.

“TMCi nurtures long-term growth, development, and competitiveness to increase startups chances of success and global expansion," says Emily Reiser, associate director of TMC Innovation. "By bringing their novel technologies and exposing them to a curated selection of TMC’s expert network, startups receive support and evaluation to build, scale, and expand in the US market."

Two of the cohort's specialties include cardiovascular and oncology — two of TMC's strongest areas of expertise — with solutions ranging from surgical devices to AI-enabled risk stratification and hospital efficiency.

Innovate UK is the country's national innovation agency dedicated to supporting business-led innovation in all sectors.

“The United Kingdom is fully committed to improving global healthcare through scientific collaboration," says His Majesty’s Consul General in Texas Richard Hyde in the release. "Through the expansion of the TMC UK BioBridge and in partnership with Innovate UK, this programme will help to expose the brightest and best British companies to the world’s largest medical city. Our companies will collaborate and grow as they work to develop cutting edge technology. The partnership between the UK Government and TMC demonstrates that international collaboration can drive both economic growth and improvement to quality of life.”

The 16 companies making up the inaugural cohort are as follows, according to TMC.

  • AINOSTICS aims to revolutionize the treatment and prevention of neurological conditions, such as dementia, by developing innovative AI-enabled solutions that draw novel insights from routinely acquired non-invasive medical scans to deliver accurate diagnosis and outcome prediction, and in turn facilitate personalized care and timely access to disease-modifying treatments for patients.
  • Alvie is a blended human plus AI-enabled digital solution providing personalised pre and rehabilitation coaching and supportive care for cancer and surgery. Alvie's technology combines data profiling, risk-stratification and tailored prescriptions of health and well-being with curated educational content, targeted behaviour change coaching and expert support through chat messaging and virtual consultations.
  • C the Signs™ is a validated AI cancer prediction platform, which can identify patients at risk of cancer at the earliest and most curable stage of the disease. Used by healthcare professionals, C the Signs can identify which tumor type a patient is at risk of and recommend the most appropriate next step in less than 30 seconds. The platform has detected over 10,000 patients with cancer, with over 50 different types of cancer diagnosed, and with a sensitivity of >98% for cancer.
  • At PEP Health, We believe all patients deserve the best care possible. Our cutting-edge machine-learning technology enables healthcare organisations, regulators, and insurers the real-time, actionable insights they need to have a direct and dramatic impact on patient experiences.
  • PreciousMD improves the lives of lung-cancer and other lung-related illnesses patients worldwide by enabling imaging-based diagnostics needed for personalized treatment pathways.
  • Ufonia is an autonomous telemedicine company, we use large language models and voice AI to increase the capacity of clinical professionals.
  • My mhealth offers digital therapeutics for a range of long-term conditions- COPD, Asthma, Diabetes and Heart Disease. Our product has been successfully deployed in the UK and India, with >100,000 users registered to date. Our solutions empower patients to self-manage their conditions, resulting in dramatic improvements in outcomes, as evidenced through multiple clinical trials and real-world evaluations.
  • At Surgery Hero, we offer a clinically backed solution that ensures whole-human support before and after surgery. We help health systems, employers and health plans cut costs without sacrificing quality of care.
  • Panakeia's software platform enables extremely rapid multi-omics profiling in minutes directly from routinely used tissue images without needing wet lab assays.
  • QV Bioelectronics are striving to deliver longer, better quality lives for brain tumour patients. Using their first-of-its-kind implantable electric field therapy device, GRACE, QV will provide effective, focal & continuous treatment without impacting patient quality of life.
  • 52 North is a med-tech company focused on improving health outcomes and health equity by reinventing care pathways. The NeutroCheck® solution is a finger-prick blood test and digital platform built to significantly improve safety and quality of life for cancer patients, by helping to identify at-home those patients who are at risk of the most fatal side-effect of chemotherapy: neutropenic sepsis.
  • Somnus is fulfilling an unmet need in global healthcare by developing real-time, point of care blood propofol monitoring. Its products will improve the care of sedated and anaesthetised patients, save money for hospitals, and facilitate a major reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
  • ScubaTx is a breakthrough organ transplant preservation company established to solve the global unmet need for cost-efficient and longer-duration organ preservation technology. ScubaTx has developed a simple, small and affordable device which uses Persufflation to extend the preservation of organs.
  • IBEX is on a mission to help people live active, healthy and productive lives by increasing their access to early diagnosis of osteoporosis. The IBEX BH software as medical device delvers routine, automated assessment of fracture risk from routine radiology for earlier detection and more equitable treatment of osteoporosis.
  • NuVision produces products derived from donated human amniotic membrane that are used in ophthalmology to help patients with chronic, traumatic and post-surgical wounds of the eye to be treated earlier and recover more fully and more quickly. The company’s products are also used in the management of dry eye disease, a debilitating conditions that affects around 17m people in the USA.
  • Calon Cardio-Technology is on a mission to improve quality of life for patients with Left Ventricular Assist devices (LVAD) and reduce the common post operative complications associated with these implantable heart pumps. We plan to do this by introducing a completely wireless heart pump system and augment patient follow-up with built-in remote monitoring capabilities.

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