IMPACT INVESTING

Our past and current clients all have one thing in common: They are all singularly making big decisions while leading their organizations through a crisis. But every executive director is in a unique experience depending on his or her mission, team, and investors.

We have been coaching and consulting these leaders to step up to serve their communities as best they can. Many are downsizing with compassion, struggling to retain funding, trying to maintain trust and transparency, dealing with grief, diminishing panic, and often forging ahead with new technology and programs – some are also strongly considering M&A, divestment, restructuring, or shuttering.

It’s an ideal opportunity to design a new future for your organizations leveraging key stakeholders who are willing to invest their time, talent, ties, and treasure.

It’s a pivotal chance to fix whatever was broken, challenge your board, contact new investors, and assemble a new team highly committed to your organization’s vision. It’s an essential time for leaders to stay grounded and authentic.

We have been counseling our clients as they develop multiple scenarios for the future – some short term and others long term. We are building consensus and facilitating difficult discussions and complex decision-making. We frequently work with teams on infrastructure, analyzing expenses, considering constraints, and/or redistributing resources for long-term sustainability.

As SeaChange puts in in “Tough Times Call for Tough Actions,” nonprofit leaders and boards need to “understand the nexus between mission, cash, and control.” This is a great read for nonprofits that are either hibernators, responders, or hybrids.

If your organization is ready to assess your collective capacity to make a meaningful impact, start asking yourself these 10 questions:

1. Are our programs still going to have the same vitality and purpose that they did before?
2. Does our existing strategic plan still have relevance?
3. What new need or direction could we have and stay on mission?
4. What programs were not profitable or sustainable previously? Are they more or less needed in the year ahead?
5. Do our services, practices, team, or culture need to change?
6. What possibilities, challenges, experimentation, and/or capacity-building actions should we consider immediately?
7. How could these changes impact our space and systems?
8. What “restart capital” is needed so we emerge from this to be more equitable and resilient?
9. What do I need to do to promote our integrity and commitment to the community we serve?
10. Who will partner or invest with me to proactively lead this change-management process?

If your organization is experiencing seismic shifts, click here to read a past Growth for Good blog post on Refreshing Your Strategic Plan.

During this difficult time Growth for Good is available as strategic planning consultants to help your nonprofit build stability and/or to proactively plan for the time when this tragic pandemic subsides. Please email contact@growthforgood.com if we can provide executive coaching, facilitate a virtual board retreat, and/or help you and your stakeholders design a better future for your organization.