Two Major Challenges to Nonprofits in the Post-Covid Era
In the upcoming post-Covid period, nonprofit organizations face two major challenges: initial reduced capacity and growing constituency need.
With organizations permanently closing their doors, lay-offs and loss of key personnel, changed constituency expectations and dramatic changes in the use of technology, nonprofits will emerge from this pandemic with an estimated reduction of 25% of capacity.
A number of nonprofits, especially smaller ones, often seedbeds of new and novel ways to do things, have closed their doors. The prospect of reemergence is initially very low, with some hope as the sector recovers in terms of available capital.
Lay-offs and departure of key personnel for other work in private business and government rob agencies of the talent and ability to function optimally. Time is needed to develop professional staffing for organizations to perform significantly higher levels of service.
Constituency — clients, workers, members, audiences, donors, partners, others — have learned new ways to function while under lockdown. Remote transactions have blossomed of necessity and will not completely disappear. Societal expectations on equity will affect how agencies are evaluated and assessed by clients, donors, foundations and government. Expectations on timing of service, thanks to such groups as Amazon, have led to reduced waiting and this will also be generalized.
Digital technology has zoomed to a much more vital place than in pre-Covid times. With automation and AI, agencies must adapt, transform and convert to keep up to very new standards. Digital interactions replace a number of the ways of working with clients and others.
Remote work will not disappear; in some areas it will dominate the way work is organized, with flexible workspaces accommodating those functions needing in-person meetings.
This is only a broad-brush description of the challenges facing nonprofits that must realign workforce, hiring practices, finances, technology and, certainly, training.
New Expectations
The other challenge is one of new expectations, of an entirely new dimension to response. With the example of rapid vaccine development, instantaneous digital response to need and focus on invention, the definition of impact of our sector has permanently changed from “help” and “reduce” to “solve” and “cure.”
This is especially true in the area of the millions of people who will not return to the workforce, especially those in lower paid occupations. This will have a profound effect on the economy, reducing those attending events, going for services, seeing health providers, contributing funds and generally dropping out. Instead, they will need all sorts of vital services, many of which have been provided by our nonprofit community.
A recent McKinsey study shows that as much of 10% of our entire workforce may need transition to new types of work. This constitutes a major opportunity for the nonprofit section to do what it does best.
Given the reduced circumstances of nonprofits cited above, what energies and resources need to be marshalled to meet this challenge? First, one needs to reexamine how one conceptualizes programs for these workers. As Beth Cobert of the Markle Foundations suggests, “Look for skills, not credentials.” Of this number, approximately 70% will not have a college degree, although they will be rich in life skills, experience, diversity and resiliency.
Might we rebuild and restaff our sector focused on this group? Might we partner with private businesses, governments, foundations and educational institutions to create programs to reskill and train displaced workers for higher paying work in all of our agencies as well as in the overall economy?
Given the diversity in this ten percent, a major advance in equity is also possible. With new jobs throughout the economy, with training and educational programs and with an approach of what Isabel Wilkerson has termed “radical empathy… putting in the work to educate oneself and to listen with a humble heart to understand another’s experience from their perspective,” real progress can be achieved.
The values of the nonprofit sector are exactly what is needed to help rebuild post-Covid. We certainly need additional resources, visionary leadership and partners and allies. We have done this before and I look forward to the sector once again taking on this major societal challenge.
This is our work and it is only beginning. With 2% of the GDP now devoted to nonprofits, accepting these major challenges will bring success and, perhaps, the ultimate 5% of GDP really needed to solve and cure — on a long-term basis. Let us begin.
