After a rocky year, Children’s Miracle Network looks to rebound in 2021

After a rocky 2020, the Children’s Miracle Network and its Credit Unions for Kids program are looking to rebound in the year ahead.

Even before the pandemic impacted fundraising for the industry’s charity of choice, CMN was rocked by the death of John Lauck, the nonprofit’s longtime CEO. He died in February from complications related to a bike accident.

“It was devastating for a long time for our organization,” recalled Nick Coleman, director of corporate partnerships. “[S]o many in our organization were close with John’s family, and they allowed us to join in their grieving process and came to our office and spoke with us when all that was happening.”

Photo courtesy of Credit Union Miracle Day

Within a month, however, COVID-19 had begun its rapid spread across the country, upending credit union operations and forcing changes to a variety of industry staples, including Miracle Jeans Days, golf outings and other events to raise money for CMN hospitals and, most notably, necessitating the cancellation of the 2020 Credit Union Cherry Blossom 10-Mile Run in Washington.

Because much of the funds for the race had already been collected by the time the event was cancelled, 2020’s Cherry Blossom race was a bigger success than the previous year. Sponsors agreed to honor their pledged commitments and organizers encouraged participants to donate their registration fees to CMN. But overall fundraising for 2020 was down about 15% compared to last year, and Coleman said leadership is targeting growth of at least 5% in the year ahead.

One thing that could help with that is the return of the Cherry Blossom race, which organizers recently announced would be pushed from April 11 to Sept. 12, due to concerns about a lack of widespread immunity in the spring.

Many credit union events for the first half of the year have already been moved to a virtual format, but much of the industry appears to be betting on a return to normalcy by the fall. The National Association of Federally-Insured Credit Unions is scheduled to kick off its annual Congressional Caucus in-person in Washington on Sept. 12, which could also help boost industry participation in the CMN race.