“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends.” – John 15:13
A few weeks ago, Toko Thompson (Vice President and Chief Financial Officer) let me know she was exploring the possibility that our Y might qualify for a tax credit, known as the Employee Retention Tax Credit. The credit has been part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, but like so many of the early provisions of this act, our Y did not qualify because we were too large (we were above the 500 full-time equivalent employee threshold) and the overwhelming majority of that funding was designed to assist small businesses. However, we did qualify for a rather large reimbursement for the essential services we provided the community in 2020, which included for our homeless hygiene program and our distance learning support. These services fell under the criteria as defined by the CARES Act, and it made a significant difference in the fiscal health of our Y (specifically, $1.5 million).
Though we benefit tremendously from the Y Network at both the national and state levels (they help represent our needs and secure funding for us), the CARES Act legislation has been very complex, requiring each Y to make its own decision to determine its eligibility as well as whether or not to take advantage of the funding. Some loans require payback by a certain date and some loans are “forgivable.” In addition, like most funding, a great deal of work is required. First, we need to understand the terms and eligibility requirements. Then, state and federal governments require an enormous amount of paperwork for accounting and records. Toko and Jessie Palmer (Senior Association Development Director) spent hours combing through the legislation to understand if we qualified or not for any funding, and when it was determined we did, Toko and the finance team had to complete an intense level of detailed requirements in the loans. I would pass along the many notifications I was receiving from our network representatives regarding possible grants and/or loans, and Toko and Jessie would spend hours researching them. I was thrilled when we received the $1.5 million, but did not really understand all the work going on in the back end. Toko and Jessie have been doing an incredible amount of work from the beginning of this pandemic just understanding our options. They have been amazing. Thank you both.
On this particular occasion, Toko indicated there was a fairly good chance our Y would qualify for the Employee Retention Tax Credit, but she was still working to understand our eligibility. Under new provisions of the CARES Act, eligible employers can claim a refundable tax credit against the employer share of Social Security tax equal to 70% of the qualified wages they paid to employees after December 31, 2020, through June 30, 2021. Qualified wages are limited to $10,000 per employee, thus the maximum credit is $7,000 per quarter, for a total of $14,000. Toko estimates we may qualify for $1.8 million per quarter. This is great news for our Y. Toko, thank you for working so hard to keep our Y afloat throughout these very challenging times.
For the past few weeks, I have been working with the leadership cabinet to redesign the goals that define the work we all do in our day-to-day routines to move our Y forward and successfully serve our community. I have recognized that the goals we used in the past, to assess our performance as an organization as well as individual employees, were never a perfect tool for all of us. For instance, while getting members to come into our centers is critical to our success, not everyone’s work directly connects to making that happen. Similarly, though we all recognize the importance of building a healthy work environment, measuring that in an engagement survey and using that score as part of an individual performance metric was always a bit awkward, to say the least. The leadership cabinet has done a great job redesigning the goals and I feel we have a much better plan, one that captures the urgency of our current situation and provides the flexibility to acknowledge everyone’s contribution.
Our number one goal in 2021, and probably for the next few years, is to rebuild our Y. We need to rebuild our capacity to strengthen our community. Youth have lost an entire year of development and they need a safe and healthy place to engage physically and emotionally with their peers. The Y is that place. As such, we will need to have a heightened focus on our fiscal health; this focus will be reflected in the weighting of our work. Each of us will be required to maintain a discipline and have a plan to contribute to our Y to help meet our fiscal targets in 2021. Achieving this goal allows us to provide critical services to ensure the well-being of our youth as well as our older adults who have been isolated throughout the pandemic. It allows us to maintain our physical assets, which are so vital to our ability to deliver the services we do. Our ability to rebuild our Y enables us to be sustainable as an organization, which also means investing in the development of our team.
You have all been making sacrifices in order for our Y to carry on with its work. You have been heroic in your efforts and your attitude. Each of you has made contributions to get us to where we are today, allowing us to be in a position to serve our community through the most challenging period throughout our history. As we have seen, the work Toko and Jessie have been doing has been critical to our survival, but it was work our members would never know about. Through our trials, we established a rally cry of One Y, because we need to pull together unlike we have ever done before. For us to rebuild our Y, we need to continue to work as One Y. Each of you is vital to our success of rebuilding this great Y. Thank you for your dedication and devotion to this effort. You are the difference.
#StayStrong #StayWithUs