CLEVELAND — The COVID-19 pandemic has taken a toll on nearly every part of our society, including the social services sector. Now, a group of local philanthropists are using a new website called WeCareForCLE.org to help nonprofits rebound from this crisis.
The new website was launched Wednesday by Social Venture Partners Cleveland. Executive director Hilary Sparks-Roberts says she and her fellow members kept hearing stories from the non-profits they work with about how hard they’ve been hit by the crisis and knew they had to help out.
“Volunteer hours have radically been changed. And then, the need they have for finding safe ways for those who want to make a difference to still support them,” Sparks-Roberts said. “This tool allows them to tell their stories, talk about their mission, talk about the impact on their organizations, both in terms of numbers and data, and again the narrative.”
Each organization submits information about its financial and volunteer losses to WeCareForCle.org. In turn, it helps people who are interested in giving back find safe volunteer opportunities and easy access for monetary donations.
SVP Cleveland started working on the new website about three weeks ago after learning about it from its sister location in Cincinnati.
“SVP Cincinnati was working with the company that developed this platform called Inspiring Service. So just about three weeks ago we learned about it, we got very excited about the opportunity to spearhead a launch here in Cleveland. And then we started reaching out to some community collaborators,” Sparks-Roberts said.
Those community partners include Business Volunteers Unlimited, Candid, Cleveland Leadership Center, Grants Plus, Greater Cleveland Volunteers, Philanthropy Ohio, The Char and Chuck Fowler Family Foundation, The Cleveland Foundation, and the United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland.
“Each of them have their own network of nonprofits, so we asked them to help us spread the word,” Sparks-Roberts said.
The website already has more than 100 nonprofits listed thanks to the outreach of those partners.
“Here's an opportunity to learn to reach out, to support nonprofits. And when life resumes some normalcy, they will have all sorts of opportunities and new connections to follow up on," Sparks-Roberts said.
The website is free for all volunteers and nonprofits to use. So far, nearly $2.5 million in monetary donations and virtual volunteer hours have been contributed.
Jade Jarvis is a reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
