Three Ways Nonprofits Can Foster Internal Development During COVID-19
By: Inès Robo
Due to lockdowns and social distancing, nonprofits around the country have seen the programs come to an abrupt halt. For many nonprofits, impact is directly based on their ability to run programs. The recent guidelines raise concerns about how they can remain productive as an organization.
In any sector, periods of crisis force organizations to take a hard look at the way they do things, from the smallest of operational details to, in some cases, redefining organizational missions.
Nonprofits are no different and can use this time away from programs to turn inward. In this article, I explore three ways for nonprofits to foster internal development during situations like the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reevaluating priorities and streamlining operations
The temporary halting of programs is an opportunity to look inward at your nonprofit’s activities. Take a deep dive into the quantitative and qualitative metrics that your programs use to determine impact. With your program logic models in hand, assess whether or not the information currently collected tells the most impactful story. Retroactively assessing program impact can reinforce your nonprofit’s priorities, core values, and mission focus.
This period is also an opportunity to shape up your nonprofit’s organizational structure and look at ways to excel at internal operations.
In practical terms, this can mean simplifying and streamlining paperwork, exploring different data analysis methods, or creating replicable processes for tasks done by staff throughout the organization. For example, streamlining a previously disorganized expense refund process by creating a clear step-by-step guide to go from receipt to reimbursement.
Finding ways to make it easier for people to work smarter is a powerful way to enhance capacity and increase impact over time.
Enabling staffers’ professional development
With programs coming to a halt, you can encourage your staff to take the time to get deeply educated on your nonprofit’s central cause(s). Distributing a list of resources of blog posts, academic articles, books, etc. can help staffers dive into the core of the issues your nonprofit stands for. If you’re not sure how to effectively enable your staff’s professional development, check out this great guide by UCSF.
Supporting your staff’s professional development keeps them involved and responsible for a part of organizational success through their personal growth. As a result of increased knowledge of the core issues that your nonprofit fights for, staff working across all levels of the organization will become more impactful in their work.
I recommend having your staff keep personal logs of the work and research that they’ve accomplished, both for individual accountability and for reporting to funders.
Recruiting remote student interns
Many students have seen their summer internships and jobs canceled, yet remain driven to spend their summer learning applicable skills and making an impact in their communities.
Developing one or multiple remote internship positions for students can be a valuable and rewarding venture for all parties involved. By taking part in your internal development, student interns can both help your nonprofit and gain tangible skills. Internships, for example, could be developed to focus on your organization’s accounting/finance, website design, or social media/communication.
During this period of job loss and internship cancellations, students have turned to their online professional community for support; use LinkedIn to post and draw attention to your internship position(s). Check out Chegg’s guide to writing effective intern descriptions. Think about the outcomes you’d like an intern to deliver (e.g., brand strategy analysis report, social media campaign plan) as well as the hard skills they can expect to learn.
By having students engage on backburner projects, your organization can make meaningful progress towards organizational resilience.
Times of rapid changes and uncertainty due to COVID-19 can put both individuals and organizations under a lot of stress. However, for individuals and organizations, this period can be a time to pause and reflect, to grow internally, and to come out stronger and more resilient post-pandemic. The three areas outlined above can be a great starting point for your nonprofit organization.
