When the Covid-19 crisis hit, nonprofits scrambled to redesign the ways they work, moving in-person programs online as much possible. For many of these groups, the emergency sparked innovations that will lead to lasting changes that improve and extend the reach of vital services.
In the online briefing, Lessons from a Pandemic: Nonprofits Reach More People Without Spending More, three nonprofit leaders share their experiences adapting to the crisis and explain that many of the new approaches led to an expansion of their organizations and missions.
Click on the image below to watch the discussion, and read on for a summary of the session, hosted by Chronicle features editor Nicole Wallace and featuring:
- Yi-Chin Chen, executive director, Friends of the Children in Boston
- Haile Johnston, co-founder and chief development officer, The Common Market
- Lauren Reilly, executive director, SuitUp
Seek Feedback to Meet Most Pressing Needs
Despite the difficulties of staying connected during the pandemic, the nonprofit executivesstress that in a time of crisis, it is more important than ever to communicate regularly your clients and partners .
Chen’s nonprofit, Friends of the Children in Boston, arranges for successful adults to mentor kids, one-one, from kindergarten through high school graduation. As the pandemic dragged ond, Chen and her staff realized that theadult care givers, not just the children, needed new sources of support. The organization conducted short surveys and talked to clients to see what they needed most.
Their feedback, Chen says, allowed the organization to respond in ways that would be the most helpful. “Over the last 18 months, it really went from being reactive crisis stabilization to proactively showing up to invest in the whole family, and celebrating the capacity of our young people in their families to tackle these challenges,” Chen said.
Now, instead of being an organization that just helps kids, it helps multiple generations of entire families, she says.
“We arrived at this decision in partnership with our community, with our donors, with our staff, and we could not be more excited to extend our scope and impact” she added.
Look for Opportunities to Partner With Other Organizations to Extend Impact
Chen notes that her organization and another nonprofit called Commonwealth Kitchen came up with with a plan on the fly to help families with emergency food assistance. Commonwealth Kitchen helps diverse entrepreneurs start and grow successful food businesses.
“Together we delivered more than 20,000 pounds of food into the homes of our young people,” Chen said.
Reilly’s nonprofit, SuitUp, pairs corporate employees with middle and high school students in competitions to create solutions to real-world business problems.
Ironically, the pandemic became “a huge growth opportunity” for SuitUp, Reilly said. Many people were looking for new ways to help out without putting their health at risk, she said.
After the pandemic forced her organization to go virtual, it grew from being a New York City-based nonprofit to one that operates in more than 15 states, working with more than10,000 volunteers, and offering a broader array of options for volunteers.
Plus, SuitUp has attracted far greater corporate support now that its reach has expanded. Previously the competitions raised about $200,000 in earned revenue but now SuitUp is poised to bring in $500,000 from these events this year.
Think of New Ways to Use Existing Resources
The Common Market, Johnston’s organization, is a regional food distributor that connects “vulnerable” communities with nutritious food from sustainable family farms.
Before the pandemic, the organization had created a food distribution network that included things like trucks and warehouses as well as strong relationships with food producers. So when the pandemic struck and the food chain was disrupted, the nonprofit was well-positioned to pivot toward meeting urgent hunger needs.
“We’ve never been an emergency food provider before, but this was the opportunity for us to step in and leverage all of the infrastructure we’ve built,” Johnston said.
Contracts with municipalities and the federal government to provide emergency assistance helped fuel the nonprofit’s growth, Johnston said. It also helped the nonprofit keep people employed and create about 150 new jobs amid the pandemic, he said.
Here are some additional lessons the panelist shared:
- Keep an eye out for the possibility that your Covid-driven measures may be meeting needs that existed long before the pandemic but weren’t obvious until recently.
- Explore new types of flexibility. For example, if you’ve never allowed people to work in other states, consider jettisoning that policy. Adding “nomads” to your worforce — people willing to move temporarily wherever they’re most needed at the moment — can be especially productive.
- Make sure your team is fulfilled. “Highly engaged employees drive your outcomes for your business, whether you’re a for-profit or nonprofit,” Reilly said.
- Take risks, and evaluate new approaches. “If you don’t try it, it’s not going work,” says Reilly. If it doesn’t work, move on quickly to another approach.
