MINNETONKA, Minn. —
The federal stimulus bill is $2 trillion that will funnel money to people who need it now.
Individuals, small businesses and hospitals will all get a chunk. But there's one group feeling left behind; mid-sized non-profits that provide crucial services in our state.
“It's affected us tremendously and affected the children and families we're serving,” says Julie Sjordal, CEO of St. David’s Center.
St. David's Center in Minnetonka is an early childhood education and early intervention treatment organization. They provide in-home and on-site therapies for kids with autism, behavioral and emotional issues, and other disabilities. When social distancing started, their work, nearly stopped.
"That's not an easy thing for a non-profit. Non-profits don't have loads of capital to be able to absorb a complete stop of services over an extended period of time,” says Sjordal.
The Federal stimulus bill was a glimmer of hope, but the forgivable loans for small businesses and non-profits, are for organizations with 500 or fewer employees.
"We have 544 employees. I can't tell you how that broke our hearts,” she says. “We only exist because our mission, and to think of the families that we serve, the 43-hundred children, families, and adults with special needs that we serve, being abandoned by us during this time when they couldn't need these services more, is heartbreaking,” says Sjordal.
“There are about 100 other non-profits, like St. David's, that just missed that threshold,” says Jon Pratt with the Minnesota Council of Non-Profits.
Pratt says the fact that non-profits were included at all in the stimulus bill is great, because they’ve historically been left out of rescue funding, but also says this gap that currently exists could be detrimental.
“The longer it takes, we're going to lose some important organizations, unfortunately," he says.
We reached out to Senator Tina Smith. She says the bill does a whole lot of good for a whole lot of people, but because it was passed so quickly, there will need to be fixes, and they're already working on it.
“We will move as quickly as we possibly can to help organizations that are so helpful in our community like St. David's. My colleagues all over the country are, in real time, just as I am, working around the clock to see how to get this legislation implemented, identifying gaps like this, and working to figure out how to fill them,” says Senator Smith.
That, of course is the best news the folks at St. David's Center have heard in weeks.
“We could absolutely use that rescue funding to keep our services in place, keep our staff employed, and really ramp up this telehealth model during this time, and eventually go back to a center-based model,” says Julie Sjordal.
There are loans available in the current stimulus bill for non-profits like St. David’s, but they are not forgivable, meaning an already strapped non-profit would have to take on more debt to access them.
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The state of Minnesota has set up a hotline for general questions about coronavirus at 651-201-3920 or 1-800-657-3903, available 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.
More information on the coronavirus:
- Facts not fear: What the Midwest should know about coronavirus
- Current number of presumptive coronavirus cases in Minnesota and Wisconsin
- Coronavirus-related cancellations, postponements and impacts in the Twin Cities
- Here are the common symptoms of coronavirus
- What are the 'underlying conditions' that make coronavirus more serious?