Welcome to Voices from the Field. This is the second of a series of Hammer & Associates guest blog posts featuring leaders and experts from the nonprofit sector, who will share ideas for funders and nonprofits alike. This two-part blog speaks to how nonprofits can–and need to–adapt to these changing times, and how you as a funder can support them in doing so. Look for future blog posts on resiliency, leadership, governance, grant writing, and more. If you wish to contribute to this guest blog, please contact me.
Businesses and nonprofits find themselves in the same boat more than ever before since the first COVID-19 cases were detected in the United States. Speaking broadly, the pandemic impacts the market, both national and private funding, consumerism behavior, and community needs. While we have not seen a pandemic like this in many generations, we’ve seen plenty of flux in the market: from election year trends, to commodity prices changing, to demand for certain goods and services increasing dramatically.
Nonprofits, just like businesses, are no longer able to ignore the market. Our pandemic climate increases the competition both for dollars and also funders’ attention.
Nonprofits who are successfully navigating the pandemic exhibit a business mindset and pivot their programs, services, and approaches to tracking income and expenses.
Savvy adaptation may look like:
- Creatively reinventing how to deliver services and goods based on new priorities
- Developing new programs based on emergent needs
- Re-allocating expenses
- Cutting programs/expenditures that are no longer priorities/essential to operations
- Staff and board changes to reflect values unification among leadership
The pandemic is forcing nonprofits to innovate in order to survive. The whole world is learning how to adjust, even when it feels uncomfortable, to meet needs in creative ways. Nonprofits are reexamining their profit margins on products and services they previously delivered at an organizational loss. This shift in perspective from “charity think” to revenue generation can be detected in conversation with organizations about their responses to COVID-19
Here are some questions to consider when speaking to nonprofit orgs to determine how they have flexed their thinking and strategies during the pandemic.
- How can you adapt your programming? What is no longer working and how can you reinvent it?
- What new partnerships do you have?
- What new program needs are you serving?
- What part of your initial budget is not working?
- Describe your organization’s population served and indicate how your organization’s population served has been impacted by COVID-19.
- Describe the impact COVID-19 has had on immediate lost revenue or non-recoverable expenses to your organization (e.g., canceled exhibitions, performances, events, or income lost by small businesses/entrepreneurs your organization works with and loss of agricultural production/sales). Have you paid expenses up front that you are unable to recover?
- How you are trying to raise or have raised additional emergency funds, execute a built-in financial contingency plan, and/or leverage other resources.
- List examples of your organizational response to COVID-19: Have you taken time to set up employees virtually? Create courses online? Offer sessions via tele-health? What new resources are you purchasing/subscribing to? How much staff time is being taken to make this switch?
- What unique contribution to your community/population does your organization provide during the pandemic?
- Explain how your organization will contribute to the recovery post-pandemic.
- Explain any collaborative partnerships your organization has formed during the pandemic.
Be sure to check back in September to learn what nonprofit culture can tell you about survival in the pandemic.
Stephanie Sample is a nonprofits management consultant specializing in fundraising development and moving organizations beyond “the way it’s always been done”. Learn about Sample Consulting Studio at: www.sampleconsultingstudio.com.