This spring, when nonprofits and other organizations closed their doors to slow the spread of Covid-19, YMCAs across the country lost about a billion dollars in revenue from memberships and fees for programs that were canceled. The YMCA network, with 2,700 locations across the country and 23 million members, will likely face a shortfall of billions of dollars over the next several years, says Kevin Washington, CEO of the YMCA of the USA. Despite this, the group has adapted and rethought some programs and is striving for racial equity.
Washington spoke to the Chronicle about the financial struggles the 175-year-old group faces, its work on diversity, equity, and inclusion, and his efforts to help the group thrive again.
For many groups, the demands for racial equity stemming from the murder of George Floyd and so many other Black people at the hands of the police have been pivotal events. What has the impact been on your organization?
We’ve been very engaged with our diversity, inclusion, and equity work for a while. But this heightened it. We’ve had several significant workshops. We did one called unlearning systemic racism, led by our African American CEO group, which included speakers Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris and Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr. We had over 7,000 people on the call. That helped us to think about and talk about how you undo racism.
We’ve been providing opportunities and changing some of the nature of the work that we do because we realize that this is an issue that is really boiling over in our organization and in our society.
From my perspective, to do this work effectively, you have to start with yourself. You have to educate yourself, you have to train yourself. Then you can do it from an organizational perspective and from a community perspective.
As a leader of color of a massive nonprofit — something that is all too rare — can you talk about your personal perspective? What do you bring to these efforts as a leader of color?
When I saw George Floyd, it reminded me of 1967 in Philadelphia, which is where I grew up. And I remember distinctly the significant numbers of protests that were going on at the time. And I felt then, when I was 13, that the opportunity to see change in our country was going to come about. Well, it is 50-plus years later. And when I see George Floyd, I’m reminded that, while I had some hope in the 60s that we would change, it didn’t happen fast enough at all for me as a Black man growing up. I was sad. I was frustrated. I was angry.
But I was also hopeful. When I looked at the protests over the killing of George Floyd, I saw a very different group of people on the street than I saw in 1967. It is a broader coalition, different colors, young folks who are also fed up with what’s going on in our country. So that’s the hope that I have. The hope is that these young folks are very different in their approach to racial justice, to systemic racism, and that they, too, want to see a change.
While I am the CEO of the YMCA of the USA, I’ve always been a youth director at heart. I have the utmost faith in what young people can do. And I firmly believe this is the time we need to lean on them as they make the changes that are so needed in our society.
How does that translate into the changes taking place in your organization?
If you talk to any leader, they will tell you that the young folks within the organization are pushing them to places they may be uncomfortable with because they want to see change happen now. There’s a big push in our organization. We had what we call a safe-space conversation because we know Covid-19 and racial injustice really created a level of anxiety for our staff. The conversation that came out, the emotions that came out of that, were amazing. They are feeling this stuff deeply, and they want organizations like the Y to speak out on every issue, to be in the forefront, to be an active organization.
The Y is in big cities and also very conservative communities. It is a real reflection of the country. And I imagine that also includes some of the divisions in the country. How do you advocate for racial equity and justice in places that are so different and may think very differently about these goals?
The YMCA reflects America. We have red, blue, and purple and every other color in between in our organization. There is a very strong cadre of young folks who say we’ve got to change. And they are pushing us to be much more proactive.
But one of the things we talked about when we started this journey around equity, diversity, and inclusion years ago was the idea that we will meet you where you are. We will meet communities where they are and move them forward.
Everybody’s not at the same place. However, you have to move.
The YMCA is a group that is synonymous with in-person services. It’s where kids go after school, for swim classes or to use the gym. What was the initial impact of Covid-19 on your organization?
We closed our office on March 10 because we saw what was coming. We also sent the notice out to our organizations to consider closing their facilities. By March 16, 95 percent of the YMCAs had been closed.
The fact that we had to cease some of our traditional programing activities because of Covid had a profound impact on our revenue and our ability to function. Most YMCAs laid off somewhere between 75 and 80 percent of their staff members.
But the YMCA pivoted to provide significant essential services to support emergency workers — police officers, doctors, nurses, those folks who had to continue to work. We provided essential child-care services in over 1,200 locations across the country.
In addition to that, over 1,000 YMCA sites were up and running, providing food. We partnered with the American Red Cross to do blood drives. The YMCA positioned itself during that time frame as a valuable community asset.
How has all of that lost revenue affected the organization? Does it change your decision making when it comes to the kinds of things you can and can’t do?
At the YMCA of the USA, we laid off 40 percent of our team permanently. Some of our larger YMCAs had operating budgets of $150 million a year, and now they are somewhere between $70 and $75 million for this year alone.
Many YMCA summer camps serve thousands and thousands of young boys and girls every year. Most of them did not run this year. That alone is somewhere in the neighborhood of $750 million to $1 billion dollars of revenue for the summer that was lost. That won’t come back.
There is a reduced ability to program as effectively as they’d like to. Some programs have to be cut. The decisions that staff had to make have been devastating.
It is a very difficult financial road ahead for many YMCAs. As they get through the rest of this year, there will be substantial reductions in program services and staffing because the resources are not there. The YMCAs will have $2 billion to $3 billion less in revenue this year than last year.
Have the government stimulus programs helped?
We and other nonprofits have been pushing for the government to step in and provide significant resources to support our work. The federal government provided support through the Paycheck Protection Program for many nonprofits. But those that had more than 500 employees — like several of our large YMCAs — could not benefit from it.
We’re hopeful that the government will pass the next relief act to support nonprofit organizations because they play a major role in communities. And when those communities need them the most, many of them will not be there. We’ve been lobbying and advocating for the government to play a large role in supporting the work of the nonprofits.
You have spent your entire career at the YMCA, which is also rare for leaders of the largest nonprofits. What does that experience help you to do better as you lead the organization through these many crises?
I understand the culture of this organization. I have been a part of it at all levels in different parts of the country. I understand how important individual autonomy is for the local associations. I also have a life experience of being an African American in this country. I bring both of those to the table. And I think leveraging that is how I’ve been able to do the things that we do collectively in the organization.
The YMCA has been around for 175 years. We’ve been through the civil war, a pandemic in 1918, two world wars, social unrest. We will get through this and thrive. It might not be next year, but we will thrive again.
