In the past few days, David Rabe says he’s spoken over the phone with upward of 15 St. Louis nonprofits. The number jumps up if you include emails.
As Emerson’s vice president of social responsibility, Rabe is on the front lines of how nonprofits are handling the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2019, Ferguson-based Emerson and its charitable trust contributed about $28.6 million to charities, nonprofits and educational institutions across the U.S.
Rabe said his conversations with nonprofits have a twofold purpose: to figure out how this impacts them and the current needs across the community.
“Liquidity is a big deal right now for everybody, but for nonprofits, it’s really front and center. They are in an environment where they are postponing galas and other fundraisers, and concerned about how the stock market decline will impact their giving,” he said. “They’re looking at an increase in need and a cash crunch, so they are pretty concerned.”
The Business Journal spoke with Rabe about how Emerson’s charitable arm is responding to the coronavirus. The conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
What role can Emerson and its corporate giving play in a crisis like this? We’ve been a very broad-based community supporter for a number of years. Like I mentioned, I’m reaching out and the nonprofits are reaching out to me. We’re having those conversations. Probably what we’re going to look to do in the near term is redirect some of our giving to target some more of these specific virus-related needs as we identify them. I’m going to have conversations with them about liquidity and immediate needs and consider which nonprofits may need some general operating support just to get through the crunch. We benefit because we have a lot of our executives locally that serve on these nonprofit boards. They serve as a really good intermediary for me to get their viewpoints and catch up on some of the critical needs.
Providing resources to health and human services groups is a key tenet of Emerson’s corporate giving. Do you expect over the next months and year that there will be greater focus on those groups? I think there certainly will. I’ve been trying to identify the key areas of need. We’ve talked about food security and other basic needs, like shelter. Mental health will be a big deal. Assisting the elderly is critical. Employment support is going to be a real issue, even bigger than it has been. Outside of health and human services, we’ve got at least the short-term issue of education at home and how do we address that to try to keep kids learning as much as possible so they don’t fall behind the curve.
Emerson donates to a broad swath of organizations. As you focused on this crisis specifically, are you having conversations with groups who aren’t as affected about what it might mean for the support you give them in the upcoming months and year? We support a lot of arts and culture, for instance. Many of the performances and things you would typically be seeing are on hold right now. We’re trying to figure out, perhaps, very near term how to redirect some of those funds, until the performances are ready to occur again, to some of these more immediate, tactical needs in the community.
As Emerson itself navigates this pandemic and what it might mean for its operations, do you have any worries about what it might mean for the ability to give? There’s no doubt that the current economic climate makes this also a more challenging giving environment. But it’s very important for us to maintain our long-term relationships and continue the broad-based support to the nonprofit community. We’re looking beyond the very short-term economic results to try to provide some stability and ongoing long-term support.