Nonprofit leadership: Mental models that will limit post-pandemic social impact
Nonprofit leadership approaches will determine post-pandemic social impact. Here are four factors that likely hinder your decision-making emerging from COVID-19.
Nonprofit organizations have always been at the mercy of economic changes. Whether a recession, a natural disaster, or other disruptive events such as 9/11 or the COVID-19 pandemic, an organization’s revenue often rises and falls in parallel with what’s happening in the world. As disruptive events go, the COVID-19 pandemic appears to have a short-term mixed impact on nonprofits. Recent reports note that donors at all levels responded positively to the sector’s needs, with corporations, high-net-worth individuals, and independent foundations leading the giving (Nonprofit Times Staff, 2021). Yet, the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies (2020) estimated that 1.6 million nonprofit jobs were lost at the beginning of the pandemic (p. 16). The most recent recovery estimate shows the nonprofit workforce remained down by nearly 900,000 jobs. The current assessment of sector recovery is approximately two years (Newhouse, 2021). The loss of staff, particularly among the smaller nonprofits, suggests that leadership in these organizations are…
