Toni Pergolin

Leading Through Hard Times

Toni Pergolin is no stranger to crisis.

As president and CEO of Bancroft, Pergolin has faced her fair share of challenging times. But nothing, she says, compares to the last year and a half.

Toni Pergolin President and CEO, Bancroft

“The pandemic changed everything,” says Pergolin. “Our mission is to help people with disabilities live their best lives. Our whole focus is helping those we serve become active in their communities, which was not possible during the pandemic.”

Bancroft is a nonprofit that helps adults and children with autism, intellectual and developmental disabilities and those in need of neurological rehabilitation through programs including special education, community living, employment services, day programs and behavioral health services. But last year, the nonprofit “pretty much went into lockdown mode,” says Pergolin. They were forced to close their schools, day programs and outpatient centers while shifting many of their services to telehealth.

“Our mission is to help people with these disabilities live their best life,” says Pergolin, “and while they certainly weren’t doing that at the time, we were making sure they lived their best life possible considering the situation.”

But this is far from her first crisis in her 17 years at Bancroft.

When she first joined the nonprofit in 2004, Pergolin – then the chief financial officer – knew she was joining an organization struggling with severe financial problems. In her first 18 months, Pergolin worked to turn the nonprofit around, a journey she details in her 2020 book, “Too Important to Fail: Leadership Lessons for Nonprofits.”

But the pandemic was different.

“A lot of organizations unfortunately didn’t come out of the pandemic as strong as we did, so we’re looking for opportunities for acquisitions and partnerships. We don’t want to see anyone lose services they relied on, so we’re looking for any opportunity for us to step in and help.”

“That first time period was hard, and while it had a big impact on peoples’ lives, they were business issues,” says Pergolin. “This hit home – it hit our families, our communities. There was a huge level of responsibility in realizing you’re in charge of keeping everyone safe – staff and those we serve.”

When the pandemic hit, Pergolin says she relied on a philosophy that has served her well over the years: the best leaders know when it’s time to step back and let someone take charge in their place.

“As a leader, you have to acknowledge that you aren’t leading alone – you have a whole toolbox of people with different experiences and talents,” says Pergolin. “In my early days at Bancroft, there was a financial crisis so I, as the CFO, took the lead. But when it came to keeping people safe from a virus, I knew pretty quickly that I had no idea how to do that. I can barely keep myself safe, let alone 1,000 people.”

So she tapped her chief clinical officer Dr. Karen Lindgren to take the lead.

“In a crisis of any kind, one of the most critical things you can do is have one leader, one voice,” says Pergolin. “No matter who asked questions – families, staff, individuals we serve – they all got the same answer. Karen kept everyone informed with even the smallest updates and took charge of ensuring that Bancroft followed CDC and state guidelines to the dot, and that’s what led to our incredibly low infection rates.”

“I also cannot underestimate the community and staff support we had through the pandemic,” she adds. “Without staff stepping up on the frontline like heroes, without so many new donors who appeared when we needed them, we wouldn’t have been able to provide the support our people need.”

With others at the helm of health and safety, Pergolin shifted her focus to growth. She insisted that the pandemic may be a challenge, but it wouldn’t be a setback. Throughout the last year and a half, she has continued the organization’s 5-year strategic plan to grow and expand services.

“I was very focused on making sure the organization kept moving forward,” she says. “We had to keep hiring. We had to keep planning. We couldn’t just put it aside and hope we could get back to it – because then we never would.”

Because of that planning, Bancroft’s programs are fully reopened with plans to operate just as they did before the pandemic – and then some.

“A lot of organizations unfortunately didn’t come out of the pandemic as strong as we did, so we’re looking for opportunities for acquisitions and partnerships,” she says. “We don’t want to see anyone lose services they relied on, so we’re looking for any opportunity for us to step in and help.”

The goal, she says, is to help more people in more places with more complex needs. And she’s optimistic that Bancroft will do just that.

“As I sit here today, I feel like we did it,” says Pergolin. “We made it through everything that could have gone wrong, and we came out really strong – and the community gets to benefit from that.”

bancroft.org | 856-348-1137 | 1255 Caldwell Road, Cherry Hill