How We Bounced Back from the Shutdown
It’s been another transformative year for Parkour Visions. In April, our governor issued a stay-at-home order for the state of Washington. Like an unexpected bail, everything went topsy-turvy, and it took all our focus to get our feet back under us.
Here’s what happened and how we recovered.
The Pandemic Strikes
In spring, PKV had after school programs lined up with 22 schools and community centers, more than ever before. We had multiple outdoor classes and three national events in the works—The Art of Retreat, the North American Women’s Gathering, and our newest addition, Jumpfest. With the COVID shutdown, 100% of our classes and after school programs were canceled, and all our national events were on hold.
As we wrote back in April, we faced an immediate loss of $35,000 in revenue and a potential loss of up to $150,000 over the next six months. The situation felt bleak.
How We Responded
Our two full-time staff members (Caitlin and Cordelia) immediately took steep pay cuts but continued to work overtime on finding solutions. It was a really stressful time. We delayed our executive transition. We also sold off our old gym equipment, generating $10,000 in revenue and saving us a $700/month storage fee.
And thanks to 53 incredible donors, we also raised $11,393 within a few weeks. With your commitment, we were able to soften the financial blow and provide emergency pay for our coaches and our monthly expenses through March and April.
But we faced a major dilemma in fulfilling our mission: how could we move together when we couldn't be together?
We brainstormed ways to support our now isolated families and students. Almost overnight, we built an online platform, PKV Moves. In the past few months, we’ve grown to 90 free and paying members, taught over 70 live classes, and added four hours of on-demand recorded content.
Then at the start of May, we secured a Payment Protection Plan loan from the government. It was a great relief. The PPP loan ensured full pay for our team of 10 coaches through July 3. We used that time to discuss new pain points within our community, explore new partnerships and remote learning opportunities, and grow our online platform.
Where We Stand Today
Our summer youth programming stayed in limbo until June 19, when King County moved into Phase 2. After that, we moved swiftly to fill up camps.
Summer programming is now in full swing, with 23 affordable small-group camps serving over 100 kids. These include both half-day parkour camps, as well as full-day Adventure Parkour Camps (on STEAM topics such as Video & Media, Theater, and Playground Design). This summer, we have 15 teen volunteers assisting with camps.
Unfortunately, Seattle Parks and Recreation canceled all community center programming for the summer. That means we have not been able to reach as many lower-income and youth of color. It's a big disappointment. We know the need is especially high in lower-income and communities of color, and we're looking for creative solutions.
We now have one full-time and two part-time staff, as well as a coaching team of 5. We’ve begun our executive transition, which should be fully completed by September.
We’ve also added several new free outdoor parkour classes for adults. These classes have seen strong interest from the community. As gyms are operating at greatly reduced capacity, the outdoors calls us to move and play safely together.
Assuming we don’t have another shutdown, we expect to bring in around $40,000 of revenue from our summer programming—much less than normal, but more than we were expecting. Most of that will go to paying coaches and staff. The rest will be put into reserve for future programming and potential emergencies.
Soon we’ll be applying for PPP loan forgiveness. With continued careful stewarding of our financial resources and staying attentive to staff wellness, we expect the organization to be stable through summer.
What’s next for PKV? We’re busy planning! Next month, we’ll post more details about our fall programs.