A Love Note for My Nonprofit Friends
There is a lot of fear in the nonprofit space right now, especially for the many, many groups who do not find themselves on the “front lines” of this pandemic, who are doing work other than feeding the hungry and tending to the sick. The fear sounds a lot like: Will we still be standing when this pandemic is in our rearview mirror? How can we be relevant? Does anyone still even have money to donate?
There is a lot of apology, which sounds a lot like: What we do right now isn’t relevant unless we’re feeding or housing people. I felt a variant of this personally after my own house flooded in Boulder, Colo., during the 2013 floods. Because my flood water was only shin-high, and because it was rainwater, as opposed to sewage, and because I could still live there and didn’t have to evacuate the house, I felt like I couldn’t even talk about it. So many people had it worse, I reasoned, that I talked myself out of my story and my relevance within the bigger story. Even though the flood happened, and it happened to me, I decided to sit out the share. And thus, I missed out on asking for – and receiving – love, support and help. A lot of nonprofits I’m speaking with right now are living some version of this.
There is a lot of dropping of agendas and dreams for the work your group does, work that mattered – a lot – a month ago.
I can’t tell you for sure one way or the other whether your organization will survive this. But if you work for, run, or serve on the board of a nonprofit, here’s what I want you to remember:
· You picked the nonprofit organization you work with because their work MATTERED to you. If it still matters, don’t give up on it.
· You can hold sensitivity for what is going on right now – for people’s very real grief and fear and financial stress – and keep your personal and organizational dreams alive.
· If you are making up stories about your donors and what they will or can or won’t support right now, stop it. Give them the respect of allowing them to make their own decisions.
· Cash flow issues don’t have to be fatal. Creativity is possible.
Please join me and co-leader, Rick Tamlyn, for a support call on this topic.
Time: 2 p.m. Mountain Time on Thursday, April 16, 2020
BY ZOOM: Join Zoom Meeting: https://zoom.us/j/406156235