THE FUTURE OF PHILANTHROPY AND FUNDRAISING: CORONAVIRUS IMPACT
THE FUTURE OF PHILANTHROPY AND FUNDRAISING: CORONAVIRUS IMPACT — FUTURE PROOF YOUR NONPROFIT
What’s changing, what’s next?
Andrea McManus, ViTreo Group Inc
May 5th 2020
The coronavirus has changed everything. The nonprofit world will never be the same, which is also the case for the private and public sector worlds; individually we have all been altered in some way by what’s happened.
I am an eternal optimist and the glass half full perspective in me has been searching for the silver linings, and in particular the opportunities for the charitable sector, in what’s been unfolding around us. What will the future hold for the organizations who seek to help the vulnerable and to make the world a better place for everyone?
Coronavirus Silver Linings
Less air pollution
Less noise pollution in cities
Less stress inducing ocean noise for sea life
(The Atlantic, The Pandemic Is Turning the Natural World Upside Down, April 02 2020)
In both the for profit and nonprofit worlds, the ability to pivot now and going forward is critical. The same old way of doing things is just not going to work. Organizations (for profit and nonprofit) need to be innovative in seeking sustainability. And in both sectors, at times the solutions will be similar and at others, not.
ENGAGE YOUR CUSTOMERS TO HELP YOU
In a recent Harvard Business Review article (actually written at the beginning of the pandemic and although that seems like eons ago it is still thought provoking), Professor Ryan Buell, Finnegan Family Associate Professor of Business Administration in the Technology and Operations Management Unit, talks about how forward-thinking leaders should engage their customers in helping them:
“The rapid spread of COVID-19 reminds us how our wellbeing is interconnected, and the flurry of heartwarming responses people have exhibited in the face of this crisis reveals our tremendous willingness and ability to help one another. These truths will persist when life goes back to normal.
Forward-thinking leaders can run better organizations by creating conditions that allow customers to be more helpful. When service provision is a true partnership and customers are pitching in, employees are more productive, service outcomes are improved, and experiences are enhanced for everyone involved.
There are three barriers that can prevent us from productively engaging:
1. not being able to help,
2. not knowing how to help, and,
3. not believing our help is important.
Organizations that have succeeded in helping their customers be more helpful have found ways to overcome all three barriers.”
Inside Philanthropy recently published an article about how arts organizations can recover from the impact of the pandemic. The author spoke to a cross section of foundations, nonprofits and arts advocates. I think their responses could scale to other sectors within the charitable world — the article is a must read:
“As arts funders navigate the opening stages of what will be a prolonged effort to stem the impact of COVID-19, many are already looking beyond the pandemic.
As A Blade of Grass Executive Director Deborah Fisher told me, ‘In the long term, I think that there are much bigger questions about how arts economies function and how they are valued. This is something that philanthropy and arts institutions can and should meaningfully address together.’….
New York Foundation for the Arts executive director Michael L. Royce summed up respondent sentiment best: ‘More government support, and funds from institutional funders that support general operating expenses or endowments or cash reserves have always been needed. The crisis only underscores how vulnerable our cultural infrastructure really is.’
Respondents laid out a broader set of action items to ensure that the sector emerges stronger and more sustainable once the crisis abates: (read the full article for more detail on the action items)
1. Build a Stronger Streaming Presence
2. Support Virtual Operations
3. Guide Efforts to Better Articulate Impact
4. Double-down on Advocacy
5. Recruit New Advocates…
7. Loosen Up
‘General operating funding is the most flexible form of funding, and puts the organization in control of how it gets spent,’ said Cate Fox, senior program officer, of the MacArthur Foundation’s Chicago Commitment.”
BUILD PARTNERSHIPS
When the pandemic first hit, our advice to many of our clients was not to first ask for help immediately without setting context and asking about them. Everyone was in shock and dealing with the impact of COVID-19 personally, professionally and financially. It was not the right time to ask.
As we all began to (somewhat) settle into the ‘new normal’, supporters began to return to their causes and ask “How can we help?” We need to answer them.
This is an opportunity to create deeper engagement. Donors, funders and supporters are a nonprofit organization’s customers. As the Harvard Business School article above states, “forward-thinking leaders can run better organizations by creating conditions that allow customers to be more helpful” - leading to a true partnership. Isn’t that what we want to create with our supporters?
Historically, this is not something at which the charitable sector has excelled. We tend to be far too liberal in our interpretation of the word ‘partnership’.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if, out of this crisis, that was one of the silver linings? True partnerships with at least some of our donors and funders? And let’s not forget other mission-aligned organizations.
WORK FROM HOME (WFH AS IT’S NOW CALLED)
Most businesses and nonprofits had to shift rapidly to WFH — not to be confused with the acronym WTF, the frequent use of which WFH has recently often been the culprit. For many who have never experienced WFH before, it has been a significant adjustment (see WTF).
Harvard Lumry Family Associate Professor Prithwiraj Choudhury has studied “remote work for many years now, but under very different conditions—not under a crisis like this. We have to recalibrate our minds in terms of why we’re doing remote work now.”
“In this moment of panic, when companies and workers are trying to figure out how to be productive and how to be happy working from home, the most practical advice I can give is to find someone who is experienced in remote work tech tools…
The second thing is, working remotely is very effective if you can also restructure the organizational processes for how communication happens, how socialization happens, and how coordination happens.”
Professor Choudhury goes on to say that companies with remote working practices have:
“well-established processes where people are socializing and no one is feeling isolated and falling through the cracks. That’s really important right now, especially with all the anxiety around us and schools getting closed and the fear and psychosis of the moment.
In my research, productivity went up when people went to remote work settings. But I would not like to compare those normal circumstances to this moment now, where general anxiety might affect productivity.”
For nonprofits who often come under fire for operational expenses (the rationale for which will always be a mystery to me), WFH on a permanent basis could be a way to reduce those expenses. This is a phenomenon we will likely see in the business world as well as the charitable sector.
Will one of the learnings from this pandemic be that less is more when it comes to bricks and mortar office space? Do we really need to work in offices? Are all those costly skyscrapers necessary? As we all become more adept at using these remote work tech tools, will it make more sense to continue to work remotely? Might a silver lining be more revenue directed to mission fulfillment due to less need for office space?
And are we more productive when we work remotely? Commute time will disappear. “As time passes, workers may find that they like the flexibility of not driving every day and might be interested in making their own self-selection to continuously work from home. So companies should have the right processes and incentives in place to allow for that flexibility.” (Harvard Business School, How The Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting The Future Of Business, Dina Gerdeman, March 16 2020)
What has it been like for you? Do you miss the office and the socialization it offers? Or having been given this ‘opportunity’, are you finding you prefer to WFH? How about the rest of your organization?
WORK TOGETHER CREATIVELY
Amy C. Edmondson, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management at Harvard, says ‘teaming’ will “become an even more critical focus… or more accurately, mastering what I have called teaming—working in flexible groups with shifting membership, often from different locations, to address particular challenges.” (Harvard Business School, How The Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting The Future Of Business, Dina Gerdeman, March 16 2020)
Professor Edmondson also believes business may shift from static organizational structure towards dynamic team forms. For this to work, every team member must feel safe in speaking up with ideas, concerns and even bad news. (Harvard Business School, How The Coronavirus Is Already Rewriting The Future Of Business, Dina Gerdeman, March 16 2020)
This is echoed by Professor Michael Beer, Cahners-Rabb Professor of Business Administration, Emeritus, co-founder and director of TruePoint Partners, and the Center for Higher Ambition Leadership.
“The coronavirus challenge demands an organization-wide, honest conversation that enables truth to speak to power about the corporate response to the challenge. Think of it as a new strategic initiative facing huge execution challenges.
These require senior management to get the best information they can about barriers to execution, and it requires trust and commitment. That comes about when everyone in the organization knows that senior management wants to hear from lower levels about barriers to execution that might include their own leadership.
The coronavirus challenge, like any crisis, provides senior management a huge opportunity to develop a trust-based culture rapidly or, conversely, if not handled with an organization-wide honest conversation, to undermine their ability to develop a trust-based culture for years to come.”
I view this move towards working in different ways as positive. But will our Boards and our Executive Directors be willing to make these changes? Unfortunately, some nonprofit organizations have been slow to adopt new solutions, new methods, in the past. One of the other silver linings coming out of this current situation for nonprofits could be that some of us have learned how to move faster and to behave in more agile ways. In looking to the future, this is a plus.
STRONGER TOGETHER
Just as in the business world, what we are starting to see and will likely see more of in our sector is organizational mergers. Although discussions around merging began in the summer of 2019, earlier this month we saw two organizations in Calgary, Alberta, merge their agencies.
“We are excited to announce that Aspen Family and Community Network and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Calgary have decided to come together and merge our agencies to create a new, unified organization that ensures stronger supports for the young people, families and communities that we serve. We envision a huge potential for these two agencies aligning, merging and transforming into ONE BIG DOOR. Together, we will create an even greater continuum of services to support people on every step of their journey.”
ViTreo can help you find your perfect match, contact us today.
I don’t know if this merger was accelerated due to the pandemic. However, I predict the charitable sector will see more mergers in the future because of COVID-19. Which will be positive if it creates a favorable landscape to fulfill organizational mission rather than keeping your organization on life support. Not all nonprofits will survive to see the end of the pandemic. Some may make it that far only to perish in what at this time is an unknown world.
The role we have taken on as fundraisers to serve the world’s vulnerable has never been an easy one. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we must work harder than ever to be resilient and to create sustainability for our organizations and for those we seek to serve.
Visit us again next week as we publish the second in our three part series on the future of philanthropy and fundraising.
The repercussions of COVID-19 are far-reaching. Non-profit organizations are dependent on the generosity of others to fulfil their mission and to help their clients. How will they fare? What do you do to survive and to be sustainable in this uncertain future? ViTreo Research has done some preliminary investigations on the effects of historic recessions on Canadian non-profits and the effects of government stimulus on their past recovery. Download the findings here.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrea McManus, Chair, Board of Directors, Partner
ViTreo Group Inc
Andrea McManus is a Partner with ViTreo with over 30 years’ experience in fund development, marketing, sponsorship and nonprofit management. A highly strategic thinker and change maker, Andrea has worked with organizations that span the nonprofit sector with particular focus on building long-term and sustainable capacity.