Leading an Organization During COVID-19
I was up late last night, turning over all the stories I’m hearing about how non-profits are responding to our current public health crisis. These events are unprecedented and are quickly putting a strain on nonprofit organizations and the people who lead them. Below are my suggestions for leaders making tough decisions, and how they can use this as an opportunity to build donor relationships.
Have a two-way conversation with staff. Make sure you privilege the perspectives of your staff over your board right now. They’re the ones whose livelihoods depend on your decisions. No one knows how long this is going to last or what the effects will be, good or bad. Have a conversation with your full staff and ask for ideas from the group. Let them see the numbers and encourage them to share their ideas. You never know who might have a great cost-saving suggestion.
Ask for volunteers. If furloughing staff is on the table, start by asking for people who can afford it to volunteer. There’s no better way to foster a sense of connection and shared purpose than asking everyone to come together and find ways to sacrifice as individuals for the good of the whole. These decisions can’t be made unilaterally from on high. People at the top will need to be seen making public sacrifices; otherwise your staff will never trust your leadership again. Trust comes from actions, not messaging.
If you do have to lay off staff:
Make personal communication by phone first; don’t let people know via email.
Follow up with an email detailing how to apply for unemployment.
For goodness sake, keep covering their health insurance. We’re in a pandemic!
Your donors are watching. As Eric McNulty of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative puts it in his recent article, “while an initial crisis may not have been preventable, the secondary crisis of a bungled response is avoidable.” Now is the time to make compassionate decisions. Organizations that are perceived as making decisions through the lens of profit rather than mission run the risk of burning bridges with donors. And word will get out about layoffs, whether you openly announce it or not.
Stay in touch with your constituents. I imagine your inbox is just as flooded as mine with emails about how every business and organization under the sun is responding to COVID-19. Since it seems like literally everyone is doing it, yours will stand out if you don’t. Make communication with all your constituents a priority right now. Let me caution you, though, that tone is very important here. Don’t make tenuous connections between your mission and current events. The best emails and social media posts I’ve seen share mission-oriented content that provides a moment of respite or delight. Right now, your audience is looking for content to consume during their self-quarantine. Are there videos from past events or performances you can share? Now’s the time to get creative and to let your humanity shine through.
Don’t stop trying to raise funds. While I’ve seen many fundraisers postponed or halted, I’m not sure this is the right move. Certainly no one wants to seem tone deaf or insensitive to the suffering of those in our community who have lost their livelihoods. But many of your donors (and likely all of your major donors) are not feeling this pinch, at least not yet. Donors are smart. They understand that organizations need extra help right now. Know that your communications are planting seeds, even if a response isn’t immediate. Good fundraising is always a long-term strategy.
Major donors will step up, if asked. Don’t assume that all your donors are freaked out about market volatility. As many of us learned working in fundraising during the Great Recession, it takes a long time for the impact to trickle down. In fact, many donors are primed to give right now out of a spirit of community-mindedness. Now is the time for board members in particular to step up and make leadership gifts. Reach out to your major donors with a personal ask. The Chronicle of Philanthropy has tips for engaging with major donors about COVID-19 here.
Be a source of confidence for your staff and donors alike. Quoting McNulty again, “In the disruption of crisis, an unshakable commitment to core values and principles creates an island of certainty that facilitates more fluid action relating to strategy and tactics.” This is an opportunity for leaders to step up and model for others within your organization. It’s also an opportunity to make courageous, creative decisions that build loyalty and commitment to your cause outside your organization, with current and future donors.