Change, they say, is the only constant. While we’ve always known this to be true, the past five years have accelerated the pace of disruption, uncertainty, and environmental change to a new level for the nonprofit sector.
Political and social fractures, shifts in once-solid revenue models, generational leadership and wealth transfers, and new approaches to work and connection are deeply affecting the industry’s stability. Day to day challenges can come from anywhere – the loss of a significant funder, the resignation of a key staff member, or the election of a new board chair with their own ideas about what the organization needs to do. On top of this, the daily news cycle and its drumbeat predictions of more uncertainty ahead can take its toll on even the most buoyant person’s energy.
In such a fluid moment, how can a nonprofit executive lean into leadership skills to maintain strategic goals, support the team, and plan for your organization’s future?
Supporting clients through change is a hallmark of Fairmount’s work. This past month, we convened a group of sector leaders to discuss nonprofit resilience. What we heard is that this is a moment for leaders to lean deeply into lessons learned from past turbulence, and importantly, to lean on each other, to help prepare and guide their teams through whatever comes next.
Here’s what we know can make a difference:
1. Keep all eyes on your North Star.
The destination is what matters, even if how you get there looks different from what you initially envisioned. Staying true to mission, vision, and goals can carry an organization through troubled times even if programming, staffing, and funding vary from the initial plan. Scaffold flexibility in your planning, build scenario budgets, and forge clarity and consensus about which strategic goals are most important, in case you need to prioritize in a crisis.
2. Communicate early and often.
Rather than retrench, turbulence is a time to expand and deepen your external relationships to generate pathways for future talent, funders, donors, or partners. Nonprofits that embrace dialogue with supporters and openly message how they are navigating unplanned shifts – both their successes and their setbacks – tend to secure more responsive and flexible funding. While you don’t want to wait for an emergency to diversify your revenue strategy, honest – even radical – transparency conveys strong leadership and builds trust and loyalty.
3. Be resilient in your thinking.
Today’s leaders benefit from staying focused on a hopeful future even while navigating short-term pitfalls. Teams look to leadership to address problems with a mix of courage, practicality, and optimism that this, too, shall pass. Grounding immediate challenges in long-term trends, helping teams reframe their narratives to consider what opportunities could come from unexpected change, and practicing daily empathy and care – for yourself first, for your teams, and for your peer leaders – is essential.
By modeling personal resilience, assessing and managing organizational risk, and not getting stuck on what you’ve always done, leaders can demonstrate honest and forward-thinking leadership.
Lastly, consider how current disruption in the sector could offer the potential for a new, and more sustainable, model. This is when innovation shines most brightly.
Reach out to amiller@fairmountinc.com to explore new strategies for your organization, rethink old funding assumptions, build leadership, or share what’s keeping you up these nights.
Fairmount Ventures is now certified as a Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) through the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), the nation’s leading third-party certifier of businesses owned and operated by women. We’re thrilled to achieve this recognition – which certifies our business is at least 51% owned, operated, and controlled by women, with appropriate strategic business planning and implementation structure – to fuel our social impact mission and support clients’ supplier diversity goals!
We’re excited to add the following clients to our roster since April 2024:
Rae Pagliarulo recently hosted “Storying Your Case Statement” for the Association of Fundraising Professionals-Greater Philadelphia Chapter, with a follow-up session and workshops on institutional
and individual prospecting coming this fall.
Aimee Miller shares her public sector insights at Future Trends in Funding Streams, an October panel hosted by Delaware Valley Legacy Fund and Glenmede Trust.
Rae & Margaret Walker present to the University of Pennsylvania’s Nonprofit Leadership Program in November on government grants and how they differ from private funding opportunities.
Upcoming trainings from Rae, Margaret, & Lori Blair include sessions for the Foundation for Delaware County with partner ImpactEd, and the Scattergood Foundation. Funders, ask how we can support your grantees through capacity-building!