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MADD Colorado Executive Director Statement on COVID-19

On behalf of MADD Colorado, I hope that you, your family and friends are as safe as possible right now.  

As State Executive Director, I want to let you know the actions that MADD Colorado is taking in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting economic crisis our state is facing.   

MADD Colorado has led the way in supporting drunk and drugged driving victims and survivors for 37 years. With your help we will continue to do this – led by our strong victim services team, volunteers, and law enforcement partners. 

The situation is evolving quickly and we will adapt and adjust our response as needed. We will communicate updates and share resources via this blog post. You can also follow MADD Colorado on Facebook (@MADDColorado) and Instagram (@madd_colorado). 

We hope that you and your loved ones stay safe during this uncertain time. Thank you for being a part of the MADD Colorado community! 

Sincerely, 

Fran Lanzer
State Executive Director, MADD Colorado
[email protected] 

MADD Colorado Response Plan for COVID-19 

In response to COVID-19, we have taken the following steps: 

Continuation of Services 
Our MADD Colorado staff continue to work remotely to support victims and survivors and continue our services to our Colorado communities.  

Moving forward we are transitioning our meetings and appointments to phone calls or ZOOM, a virtual meeting platform, so that our victim/survivors, law enforcement partners, supporters, and community contacts can continue to look after their health in the safety of their own homes, while remaining connected with our MADD Colorado community. 

Our victim advocates will continue to keep in touch with victims and survivors – to ensure support continues regardless of what lies ahead. 

Events 
Through June 5th, all in-person MADD Colorado events have been canceled or postponed. When possible, we will move these events to virtual formats. 

We will look to public health recommendations from our communities, the state, and the CDC for guidance as to when we can reschedule and resume our in-person events.   

Communication 
Our staff team is in communication frequently to ensure our policies, procedures and messages are responding and adapting to any emerging health advice and the needs of our communities. 

We will share frequent updates via email. We will also be posting regularly on Facebook useful links and positive messages to keep connected with you, our community, during these uncertain times. 

As we move forward, it will be essential for us all to continue to welcome and encourage our MADD Colorado community to stay connected with one another – by providing safe, friendly and socially inclusive environments and forums to do so. 

As more information comes to light, we will continue to refine our approach to COVID-19 and update you accordingly. 

Emergency Appeal – Coronavirus Response 
We have proactively launched an Emergency Appeal – Coronavirus Response to help mitigate the unprecedented financial crisis we are now facing.  

There are FOUR converging factors that have led to the need for this appeal. 

1. Our donors make MADD’s mission happen. 

100% of your donations goes into providing support services to victims & survivors, educating youth and parents, supporting our law enforcement partners, and advocating for laws to make our Colorado communities safer. While we are a part of the national MADD organization, we operate as a small charity in Colorado.  

2. We provide crucial support to victims and survivors who continue to deal with the tragic impacts of impaired driving crashes.  

While some parts of our lives are on hold, DUI crashes continue to happen, cases move forward, and victim/survivors need support as much as ever. Right now, our focus is 100 percent on ensuring our mission-critical services here at MADD Colorado continue to be available to victims and survivors in urgent need. We are working hard behind the scenes to develop innovative new ways to deliver our victim services and support groups online and in-home in the weeks and months ahead. 

3. 84% of our income is now at significant risk.  

The result of canceling and postponing in-person events and activities is that our projected events and fundraising income has now flat lined. Together, the projected loss through June 5th is already $252,940. At this point, we don’t know when we will be able to resume our fundraising campaigns, events like Walk Like MADD, and victim impact panels. Most of our revenue comes from in-person events and activities—this uncertainty means over 84% of our income stream is now at risk.  

4. We expect drunk and drugged driving to surge. 

While DUI incidents are down at present because of stay-at-home orders, we anticipate that drunk and drugged driving crashes, deaths, and injuries will surge as the pandemic passes, travel restrictions are lifted, and bars and restaurants reopen. This also happened following the 2008 recession. As the economy strengthened, impaired driving fatalities soared. We need to be ready to support our law enforcement partners in keeping our roads safe. Unfortunately, it’s also likely that many victims and survivors will need our services urgently.   

If we don’t act now, this pandemic will have an unimaginable impact on our victim support services, community outreach, and law enforcement support programs. 

We take our role as stewards of your philanthropy very seriously. Now more than ever, we count on our donors to continue supporting our mission for those so unjustly impacted by drunk and drugged driving – despite these difficult times. 

To proactively combat potential scams, or unauthorized fundraising, we advise all donors to make their donations directly to MADD Colorado website at https://www.madd.org/colorado/donate/ or directly by phone at 303-425-5902.  

Business Continuity 
In terms of continuity of services, our team is well suited to working remotely and we made a smooth transition. Over the past two years, we made investments in technology to allow our team to work from different locations and provide our victim services and programs to all parts of Colorado. Because of this, we are moving forward with minimal disruption to our services.  

Since I became Executive Director in 2013, our team has worked diligently to grow revenue and diversify our funding sources. But this pandemic crisis was not in our planning and we were not prepared for this. 

Our team is acting quickly and with purpose to look at alternate measures that can be put in place to ensure the viability in the weeks and months ahead. The following are just some of the actions we are undertaking: 

  • We are reviewing all mission-critical services and budget projections for a range of scenarios. 
  • We will be seeking out federal, state, and local economic support through available economic stimulus aid.  
  • We will work with previous and emerging major donors to boost our emergency appeal through philanthropic support to provide breathing space to put in place further measures. 
  • We will be engaging our corporate supporters in conversations to secure their continued support. 
  • We are seeking ways to move our in-person fundraising activities to virtual platforms to offset revenue losses. 

Resources 
I hope that you and your loved ones are healthy. Please take steps to protect yourself and prevent community spread. You can read more at: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/prepare/prevention.html. 

If you have respiratory symptoms, fever, cough, shortness of breath and breathing difficulties, it is important to call ahead before going to see a doctor or emergency room to prevent the spread of illness. Tell them your symptoms and that you suspect you were exposed to someone with COVID-19 or had recent travel to a place that is experiencing community spread. You can find more information here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/if-you-are-sick/steps-when-sick.html. 

For critical updates in Colorado, please visit https://covid19.colorado.gov/. 

In addition, we will be compiling community resources here: 

All Posts from 2020