From Peloton to Zoom, we have all likely read stories about companies who rapidly grew during the pandemic, just to see their overall value and/or usage decrease as consumers' behavior shifted. News articles often focus on a CEO’s wealth or a company’s net income when making that comparison, but what about metrics like awareness and participation? Many companies are starting to scale back and restructure their goals to align with the current demand.
What about nonprofits? What about us? If you think about it, two of the main groups Cardz For Kidz is dedicated to reaching are kids with pre-existing conditions and seniors in retirement homes. Those segments were both dramatically impacted by COVID-19.
We had a special saying, “During this time of social distancing, groups can ‘work together’ to make a difference.” We encouraged groups to use video conferencing and send us screenshots from their events.
We went from receiving 49,286 cards in 2019 to collecting 121,238 in 2020 – a 146% increase. To be 100% open and honest, we weren’t fully ready for that rapid of an increase. We began our path to connect to even more Ronald McDonald House Charities (#familiestoo) across the globe and expand to more foster and/or group homes. In addition, we made the “Kidz” part of our name obsolete and made sure that we consistently sent cards to senior homes across the country as well. Dating back to 2011, for the most part, the number of cards we received increased each year. As you can see in the chart below, we couldn't keep up with the increase in 2020, but thankfully, we’ve been improving over the past few years.
With the focus on the last two years, 2021 vs. 2022, you’ll notice we’ve been doing our job to make new partnerships and send more cards, but there was an 11% decline in the number of cards we received.
We understand that there are some companies who are now back in person and are no longer interested in our efficient way of volunteering from anywhere. In addition, there are some hospitals who are opening back up, so some artists may feel like they can go deliver their cards directly to their local nonprofits.
No matter what, we’re going to further our mission and CONTINUE TO DELIVER uplifting handmade cards to people of all ages whether or not they’re able to leave their rooms.
Within the last 6 weeks, we’ve received over 10 new partnerships requesting 1,265 new cards for the people they serve. Although volunteering remotely may be losing some of its appeal, we know the patients, families, and seniors we serve value these cards. Therefore, we believe our dedicated artists will continue to work hard to ensure that we can uplift spirits across the globe!