Spokane-based YMCA of the Inland Northwest, a nonprofit organization that offers health and wellness programs, youth sports leagues and clinics, child care, workout facilities, and various other programs, is coming off its three most successful fundraising years ever, says Jesse Zumbro, the financial development director of the nearly 140-year-old nonprofit.

From 2020 to 2022, the organization, which is headquartered at 1126 N. Monroe, pulled in between $2 million and $2.4 million in total contributed revenue each year, Zumbro says. That doesn’t include a $10 million donation in 2020 from philanthropist MacKenzie Scott, ex-wife of Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos.

Before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, YMCA of the Inland Northwest typically received between $1.3 million and $1.5 million in contributions each year, says Zumbro, who oversees all of the nonprofit’s fundraising operations.

“We recognized that there are funding opportunities there that we’ve never really pursued,” says Zumbro. “Grants were a small portion of what we did, but just as things have shifted, we found that there was a greater need for us to follow those dollars and try and tap into those dollars.”

A substantial reason for the organization’s record fundraising years has been the roughly 600% growth of its grants program since 2019, Zumbro says.

Prior to 2020, YMCA of the Inland Northwest usually was awarded between $250,000 and $275,000 a year in grants, he says. From 2020 to 2022, however, the organization saw those numbers climb to about $1.5 million to $1.6 million annually.

While part of the increase in grant funding came from pandemic-relief programs, Zumbro says YMCA of the Inland Northwest also took steps to improve its grant program efforts.

“Last year, we hired a full-time grant writer for the first time,” he says. “We realized that there were grants there, and it was just more than I had the capacity to do by myself.”

Grants are one of a few sources of revenue for the organization.

“There’s been a big focus in those areas of grants and regular donations and working with foundations as well,” says Alan Lesher, CEO of YMCA of the Inland Northwest.

The organization’s annual golf tournament has been successful recently, and its last Camp Reed auction was the largest in its history, Lesher says.

“We’ve seen a lot of success in different areas—engaging our board better, engaging the community members better, (and) with our events,” he says.

There have been improvements made to the nonprofit’s outreach capabilities, Zumbro says.

“We’ve built in a stewardship position to the development side to do a better job of taking care of our donors and sharing what we’re doing with their money and why it matters,” he says.

This year, YMCA of the Inland Northwest’s annual budget is about $19 million, similar to the nonprofit’s budget in 2019, Zumbro says. The past couple of years’ budgets were much smaller due to a lack of membership and program revenue, but grants and donations kept the nonprofit afloat, he says.

“Our business model was not built for a pandemic. We’re membership based, we run a lot of programs, and all of that shut down,” Zumbro says. “But our base really rallied.”

During the pandemic, some members who couldn’t use the facilities donated part or all of their membership costs to the nonprofit, he says, adding that some donors even donated a portion or all of their stimulus checks.

“They really stepped up and carried us forward,” he says.

Despite the budget reaching pre-pandemic levels this year, the organization’s membership levels are at about 80% of what they were in 2019, Zumbro says.

The nonprofit’s staffing levels, however, haven’t recovered to pre-pandemic levels, Zumbro says.

“Like everyone, we’re struggling with staffing,” he says.

According to the Journal’s 2022 list of largest social-service nonprofits in the Spokane-Coeur d’Alene area, YMCA of the Inland Northwest had 499 employees as of October, down from 951 employees in the 2019 list.

“The Y is a large first-time employer,” Zumbro says. “We get a lot of kids who get their first jobs at the Y—life guarding or summer camps—and there just don’t seem to be as many of them now.”

Currently, the ideal mix of revenue sources for YMCA of the Inland Northwest is 40% from memberships, 40% from programs, and 20% from contributed revenue, which includes grants, Zumbro says. Before 2020, contributed revenue usually accounted for about 10% of the total, he says.

Zumbro says the nonprofit was in need of growing its contributed revenue even before 2020, but the pandemic forced it to accelerate those efforts.

With the organization being one of Spokane’s oldest nonprofits, Zumbro says, “Sometimes we get into the habit of doing things the same way for a period of time. As bad as the pandemic was, it forced us to reevaluate some things.”

Grant-based revenue this year for YMCA of the Inland Northwest is at about $500,000, with another $700,000 in grant requests pending, Zumbro says.

The nonprofit likely will put in another $700,000 to $800,000 in requests by the end of the year, he says.

“The first couple years, a lot of that was COVID-relief money,” Zumbro says. “A lot of that has dried up now at this point, but we found other avenues.”

Lesher says he expects the state of Washington will increase grant opportunities that YMCA of the Inland Northwest can pursue.

“Some of the grants were very specialized with the COVID money,” Lesher says. “I think where we’ll probably see some of that being replaced is the state of Washington working to support early learning and child care. We’re seeing that there’s a lot of talk about them increasing those opportunities.”

Early learning and child care often don’t see as much traditional philanthropy as other programs, so they have to rely more on state support, Lesher says.

Zumbro says the recent increases in funding will help support a variety of programs and services, including after-school programs; Livestrong at the YMCA, which is a free program for cancer survivors; a partnership between YMCA of the Inland Northwest and CHAS Health called Pathways to Wellness; early-learning facilities; and a free meal program for teens at the nonprofit’s Monroe Street location.

“We’ve really been able to dive back into our community health programs,” Zumbro says.

Lesher adds that youth sports and veterans’ programs also will benefit from the increased fundraising efforts.

With contributed revenue holding steady at record levels, and membership and program revenues coming back, YMCA of the Inland Northwest is able to focus its attention on helping people in the community, Zumbro says.

“I think this is just going to allow us to continue to grow and expand our programs and our outreach and help more people in the community who need it, because we know the demand is there, we know the need is growing.”

YMCA of the Inland Northwest has locations in Spokane, Spokane Valley, and Sandpoint, Idaho. It also has a children’s center at Eastern Washington University, in Cheney, and owns Camp Reed, at Fan Lake, about 8 miles northeast of Deer Park.