Membership Donate Newsletter

A Compendium of Tips and Information for Governance, Management and NFP Operations

Nonprofit Governance: Coronavirus and COVID-19

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Fiduciary Duties

The board of directors of a nonprofit is ultimately responsible for the activities and affairs of the nonprofit and the exercise of all corporate powers. A board may delegate management of the day-to-day operations to officers, committees, employees, or a management company, but it may not delegate its oversight responsibility or its function to govern. And when it delegates authority and power, the board must do so with reasonable care.

For nonprofits with employees, the roles of the board are to direct, oversee, and protect. Direction is provided through mission, vision, and values statements; plans; policies; budgets; specific directives; and responsible leadership. Oversight involves reviews of executive performance, financials, audits, programmatic impact, and compliance. And protection of charitable assets is accomplished by appropriate risk management, including internal controls and insurance, and strategic decision-making.

Directors are subject to two fiduciary duties in carrying out their governance responsibilities:  the duty of care and the duty of loyalty.

Meeting a director’s duty of care generally requires acting in a reasonable and informed manner under the given circumstances.  The standard of care is typically expressed as that which “an ordinarily prudent person in a like position would use under similar circumstances.” The circumstances now are substantially different from last month, and each director must consider how that changes the care and attention an ordinarily prudent director would provide to their organization. While director liability for gross negligence may be rare, the risk may be significant if, for example, the disease spreads within the nonprofit’s facilities or event site due to inattention and inaction of the board, particularly if the nonprofit seems to be an outlier in its management of the crisis.

Meeting a director’s duty of loyalty generally requires acting in good faith and in the best interests of the corporation. The key to meeting this duty is to place the interests of the corporation before the director’s own interests or the interests of another person or entity. This does not, however, mean that furthering the mission in the short-term is more important than protecting employees, acting consistent with the organization’s values, and helping to assure the sustainability of the organization. Balancing these sometimes competing interests is one of the difficult challenges of a director.

 

COVID-19 Preparedness for Employers

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Supporting Individual Staff Members

  • Communicate regularly with staff, even if there is no new information to report.
  • Ensure that all CV-related standards are applied consistently to avoid concerns about bias against protected classes.
  • Communicate clearly that discrimination and harassment related to CV are prohibited under policy and law. No person should be subject to bias, harassment, or discrimination related to CV. Promptly follow-up on any reports of bias, harassment, or discrimination.
  • Some staff will express concerns about coming to work even if there is no particular elevated risk factor. Consider your response. Will you require staff to come to work, or allow them to be absent? Consider whether absent staff will be allowed to telecommute, to use paid leave, and to what extent.
  • Remind staff of duty not to retaliate against staff who raise health or safety concerns.
  • Consider ways in which you are willing to flex family, medical, and sick leave policies. For example, consider allowing staff to use leave to stay home as necessary to comply with CV protocols and related closures, even if they are not sick or do not have serious health conditions. Consider whether and how to pay employees who miss work to comply with CV protocols and have no applicable accrued leave. Remember that employees are less likely to report if they will lose pay.
  • Consider which staff have immigration status that might be affected by entity closures or if employment is interrupted.
  • The CDC has requested that employers not request doctors’ notes to validate staff members’ need for leave or to allow staff back to work after recovery.
  • Consider whether you will pay staff for any 14-day quarantine period that follows a period of international travel.
  • Consider whether your rules will be different for work-related and personal travel.

 

No Business Continuity Plan? Take These 4 Steps

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Follow these four steps to bolster resilience and minimize the long-term, costly impacts of ANY serious interruption to ‘business as usual.’

Step 1. Reach Out

Determine how best to quickly and efficiently communicate with ALL key stakeholder groups in your nonprofit. Your method could be a series of lists (think email addresses and phone numbers), a communications app with options, or a phone tree. Don’t waste time trying to find a slick or fancy communication tool. For now, choose one that will enable you to quickly communicate key messages about your operating status, cancellations, staff availability, etc. Assign clear responsibility for crafting those messages and make sure everyone knows who has authority—and who doesn’t—to click “send” on those critical messages.

Step 2. Make a Short MUST Do List and Do It

Identify a short list of 3-5 things your nonprofit MUST KEEP DOING no matter what to survive and thrive despite the interruption. For many organizations, that list will include processing payroll, providing vital services to vulnerable clients, and letting partners, contractors, and others know about your temporary change in status. Gather your best and brightest around a virtual table to determine the practical, plausible strategies to keep doing those MUST DO things.

Step 3. Shutter and Scale Back

Identify the services, programs, and activities that you will temporarily discontinue, delay, scale back or change for the immediate future: think 45-60 days. Determine the steps you will take to make those changes in operations immediately.

Step 4. Plan to Resume Operations

Brainstorm with your core leadership team some of the critical steps necessary to bring shuttered programs back online. Also, determine whether you’ll resume operations fully on a specific target date or restart one program or service at a time. As part of this step, identify any short-term projects or activities that build resilience for your agency. For example, could someone who typically answers the phones assist with an important information-gathering project, making telework a possibility? Assume that your staff and volunteer team want to support your work and are available to pitch in and pivot as needed!

We know it’s hard NOT to do these things, but we urge you to try:

  • Don’t beat yourself up (or cast aspersions on others in your agency!) for failing to finish that Business Continuity Plan before now.
  • Don’t obsess about creating Business Continuity Plan strategies narrowly suited to the cause of your current interruption; take steps and make plans that will be useful when the NEXT interruption occurs.
  • Don’t add unnecessary complications or contrivances to your immediate action plan: Business Continuity Plan is all about focusing on mission-critical activities and scaling back everything else.

 

COVID-19 Care Checklist for Nonprofits

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To support your employees

  • Ask how everyone is doing. Make it clear that everyone’s health–physical and mental–is your top priority. Communicate clearly about organizational policies and practices as they evolve.
  • Establish regular check-ins with any staff working remotely, such as a daily email with key priorities/FAQs or a daily/regular conference call or online meeting.
  • Modify your leadership to adapt to the new circumstances.

To support your organization

  • Update your board. Make sure they know what you’re doing and how they can help. They may be able to help you divide and conquer on some of the other items on this list.
  • Review expenses and check-in with vendors. Figure out which non-essential recurring bills, subscriptions, and services you can shut off. Push off future orders for materials. Check with your vendors and landlords to determine if they have any flexibility to waive or defer payments.
  • Check-in with your funders. Do your philanthropic partners have flexibility to allow you to redirect restricted funds? Update corporate sponsors on your plans, and if necessary, ask if they are willing to have their sponsorship dollars directed to other purposes.
  • Contact your financial institution to inquire about the possibility of receiving a loan, restructuring current loans, delaying payments, receiving information on loans for employees, and other available support.
  • Shift your mindset from sustainability to survivability and understand what your organization must to do achieve that in five must-dos from Nonprofit Quarterly.
  • Clearly promote your needs. While some donors may be just as affected as you are, others are looking to help. Make sure your website/social media have a clear way for folks to know how to help, whether that be by making a donation or dropping off supplies. 

To support your community

  • Practice safe hygiene. The greatest gift one can provide those around them is doing their part to prevent the spread of disease.
  • Adapt programs. Learn about moving events, programs and meetings online.
  • Keep communicating. Keep your members/donors/volunteers posted on your organization’s status whether via email, social media or phone calls. If they invest in your mission, they’ll want to know how you are. And don’t be afraid to ask for help!
  • The show must go on! So many of you are coming up with some super creative ideas on how to stay connected – daily writing prompts, virtual programming and classes, e-galleries, live-streamed performances – we’re all glued to our screens right now, so what better time to engage everyone from afar!

To support yourself

  • Know it’s okay to be stressed.
  • De-stressat your fingertips with one, or all, 13 of the Best Apps to Manage Your Stress.
  • Stay active.We may need some extra reminding to take a stretch break from all this remote work.

 

Some Thoughts for Scary Times

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  1. Forget about yourself, focus on others.
  2. Forget about your commodity, focus on your relationships.
  3. Forget about the sale, focus on creating value.
  4. Forget about your losses, focus on your opportunities.
  5. Forget about your difficulties, focus on your progress.
  6. Forget about the future, focus on your today.
  7. Forget about who you were, focus on who you can be.
  8. Forget about events, focus on your responses.
  9. Forget about what’s missing, focus on what’s available.
  10. Forget about your complaints, focus on your gratitude.

 

Eight Steps for Managing Through Tough Times

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  1. Act quickly, but not reflexively, and plan contingencies.
  2. Protect the core.

Your organization’s leadership may already be clear about what the most important priorities are. But if they aren’t, we strongly recommend bringing key staff and board members together to wrestle with three critical questions that can help to create that clarity:

  • What results are we trying to achieve, and for whom?
  • How do we achieve them?
  • What does that really cost?

Until everyone has agreed on the answers to these questions, it will be hard to develop a real consensus around which programs and activities are truly core and which ones, however reluctantly, can be let go.

  1. Identify the people who matter most and keep that group strong.
  2. Stay very close to your key funders.
  3. Shape up your organization.
  4. Collaborate to reduce costs and expand impact.
  5. Involve your board.
  6. Communicate openly and often.

 

Running Effective Virtual Nonprofit Meetings: 9 Best Practices for Facilitating Engagement

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This guide covers the following topics:

  1. Co-Create Your Team’s Rules of Engagement or Virtual Meeting Norms
  2. Virtual Meeting Design Is More Than Agenda Planning
  3. How To Avoid Technical and Time Zone Scheduling Snafus
  4. Always Do A Virtual Icebreaker or Check-In
  5. Create A Line for Participants To Follow
  6. Techniques for Virtual Brainstorming, Voting, Feedback, and Energizers
  7. Ways To Evaluate and Continuously Improve Virtual Meetings
  8. Hybrid Meetings: Mixing Virtual and Face-to-Face Participation
  9. Send Meeting Notes that People Actually Read

 

Nonprofits as employers

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For those nonprofits that are employers, now is a good time to revisit your policies and procedures regarding staff communication, sick time and remote work. And an even better time to make a commitment to decent work practices in your organization that will help smooth the way for healthy staff and a healthy workplace! Consider:

  • Communicating clearly and often with your teams
  • Paid sick time and flexibility regarding these policies and processes if warranted
  • Remote work possibilities for those who have roles that do not require them to be physically present
  • Access to mental health supports for those who are experiencing anxiety or fear during this time

 

Ten Steps to Effective Crisis Management for NonProfit Organizations

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Why Have a Crisis Communication Plan?

Don’t think you’re different – crisis can strike any organization, at any time. The longterm health and reputation of your organization is at stake. What matters most in a crisis communications situation is not what you do in the middle of the crisis, but what you do in the weeks, months and years ahead of one. One of the worst things that organizations can say in a crisis is “no comment.”

  1. Identify Your Crisis Communications Team
  2. Anticipate Possible Problems and Crisis
  3. Identify Spokespeople
  4. Identify Audiences
  5. Establish Notification Systems
  6. Create Foundational Statements
  7. Assess the Crisis
  8. Create Crisis-Specific Messaging
  9. Monitor Systems
  10. Analyze After the Crisis

 

Nonprofits and Coronavirus, COVID-19

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What steps should nonprofits take?

  • First and foremost, we all need to keep open lines of communications with our boards, employees, volunteers, donors, and the people we serve.
  • Review your sick leave policy and, if possible, enhance the flexibility of that policy to give comfort to your employees – particularly hourly employees – about taking time off.
  • Review your organization’s business continuity and recovery plan.
  • Go virtual: While nothing is quite like face-to-face events, rather than cancelling, many are making events virtual.
  • Keep in communication with your community.
  • Plan for working remotely. Dust off or establish policies for remote workers and telecommuting.
  • Don’t forget the importance of equity. Your staff may not all have the same access to equipment or a quiet space in their home, so be sure you are doing what you can for your team.
  • Take care of your organization’s finances.
  • Participate in public decision-making.
  • Be a voice for civility and healing. Speak out against acts of discrimination and xenophobia you see in response to this spreading disease.
  • Take care of yourselves. As we all practice social distancing to benefit physical health, we need to be cognizant of its effects on mental health. The social aspects of our lives, from the escapes of concerts and movies to the simple opportunities to chat around the water cooler, have been upended. So, it’s important to practice self-care during this time. Encourage your organization to hold virtual staff meetings by video conference, rather than just by phone. Getting to see other faces is just a small gesture, but it’s useful.

 

Manage Anxiety & Stress

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Stress during an infectious disease outbreak can include

  • Fear and worry about your own health and the health of your loved ones
  • Changes in sleep or eating patterns
  • Difficulty sleeping or concentrating
  • Worsening of chronic health problems
  • Increased use of alcohol, tobacco, or other drugs

Taking care of yourself, your friends, and your family can help you cope with stress. Helping others cope with their stress can also make your community stronger.

  • Things you can do to support yourself
  • Take breaks from watching, reading, or listening to news stories, including social media. Hearing about the pandemic repeatedly can be upsetting.
  • Take care of your body. Take deep breaths, stretch, or meditate. Try to eat healthy, well-balanced meals, exercise regularly, get plenty of sleep, and avoid alcohol and drugs.
  • Make time to unwind. Try to do some other activities you enjoy.
  • Connect with others. Talk with people you trust about your concerns and how you are feeling.

 

What Nonprofit Board Members Should Be Doing Right Now to Address the COVID-19 Situation.

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The Board’s Role in a Crisis

The board should be working closely with the chief executive to govern and manage the situation, as well as address external threats. While the CEO is responsible for operational planning and executing these plans, the board should be reviewing and responding to the organization’s strategy, and providing feedback. Both the board and CEO should be flexible in their planning, and consider all the possible ways the COVID-19 crisis can evolve. As the board reviews the organization’s plans, it should consider:

  • What aspects of this situation could affect our organization?
  • What are the organization’s greatest vulnerabilities?
  • What questions from the press would we least like to face?
  • How can we prevent worse-case scenarios from occurring?

 

COVID-19 Response and Communications Planning

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Topics include:

  • Risk Assessment and Management
    Organizational Events
  • Finances and Investments
  • Staff and Stakeholder Safety
  • Board Meetings and Decision-Marking Practices
  • Communications Planning
  • Continual Assessment

 

Sustainability to Survivability: 5 Nonprofit Finance Must-Do’s in the Time of COVID

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Time is of the Essence

None of the steps here are easy—especially in a time of crisis. Given this rapidly evolving pandemic, it is tempting to put off decision making to see how the situation progresses. One lesson from the Great Recession, however, was that those organizations that assessed their situation earlier were able to make strategic decisions which resulted in less severe measures later. Nonprofit leaders face competing demands and priorities as they deliver on their missions. By inviting others in, communicating clearly, looking at the organization holistically, and understanding where we’re starting from financially, leadership can attempt to spread the workload, build commitment, surface strategies and implement solutions to help their organizations—and our communities—survive and, once again, eventually thrive.

One constant across the sector has been the cancelling of spring fundraising events and the upheaval of development plans. As organizations struggle to maintain operations, payrolls, or both while revenue is decreasing, there are steps they can take to increase likelihood of success:

  • Understand your cash position.
  • Assess damage to revenue streams.
  • Look at the dual bottom line.
  • Include everyone in the discussion.
  • Communicate consistently.

 

Business continuity planning

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In an ideal world, we’d all have business continuity plans ready at our fingertips! If you do, now is the time to dust it off and ensure that everyone on your team knows what your plans are. If you don’t have one, now is the time to put together a small group of team members (which could include board members or volunteers) and craft a plan. Be sure to address:

  • Who makes decisions during this time and what criteria do they use to make decisions?
  • Who, when and how do you communicate with your staff, volunteers, clients, program participants and stakeholders such as partners and funders?
  • What “business” functions are critical to maintain and which ones can be cancelled or postponed?
  • Do you have contact information handy for key people – such as board members, staff, partners, professional services (such as bookkeepers, accountants, lawyers), funders, etc.?
  • If you have an office, do you have access to critical organizational information should the office not be accessible? E.g. back-ups, storage on the cloud, etc.

 

Here are ten things you can do instead of meeting with donors and asking for money during the COVID-19 pandemic

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  1. Check in with your donors and see how they are doing.
  2. If you are a front-line fundraiser, work with your annual giving team.
  3. Plan your travel for the summer and fall.
  4. Work on stewardship.
  5. Discover new prospects.
  6. Read a book.
  7. For annual giving folks, this is a great time to have a Zoom or virtual meeting and brainstorm creative ideas for outreach.
  8. Have a conversation with a mentor or mentee.
  9. You may want to work with your communication team or your alumni relations team (for university fundraisers) to see how you can get some content online for your audience to enjoy while they are at home.
  10. Research your own organization or program.

 

Successful Fundraising: 8 Steps to Weather the Coronavirus Crisis

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  1. Stay calm and carry on.
  2. Convene your board (virtually, by video chat, if necessary).
  3. Meet with your donors more frequently.
  4. Cancel events, but don’t refund the money.
  5. If you’re planning or in the midst of a capital campaign, stay the course.
  6. Thank your donors.
  7. Don’t make assumptions.
  8. Ask for what you need.

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