The Impact of COVID-19 on Community-Based Nonprofits and the Roles of Community-University Partnerships: A Study of a Community-University Partnership in Pontiac, MI

Nonprofits play vital roles in delivering services, strengthening communities, and facilitating civic engagement, as they are deeply rooted in the community and aware of its fundamental needs. However, COVID-19 significantly interrupted nonprofits’ activities and program operations. This study investigates the impact of the pandemic on the nonprofit sector in Pontiac, Michigan, a city characterized by high levels of poverty and racial diversity, the support nonprofits have been in need of since the pandemic, and the roles of community-university partnerships in mitigating long-term impacts of the pandemic. This study suggests that COVID-19 significantly disrupted nonprofits’ programs and service provision and dramatically decreased resources such as financial donations and volunteers. Although the pandemic affected nonprofit organizations across the United States, its impacts were not uniform. Guided by a community-based participatory research approach, this study deepens our understanding of the impact of COVID-19 on community-based nonprofits in a vulnerable community and the important roles of community-university partnerships. We used data collected from 35 community-based human service nonprofit organizations in Pontiac. Our analysis revealed that 1) the pandemic significantly disrupted nonprofits’ activities due to increasing community needs and decreasing resources, but the extent of the impact varied as a function of the nonprofits’ financial capacities and board size and diversity and 2) nonprofits expect community-university partnerships to function as bridges to promote collaboration and support for building capacity.