COVID-19 is affecting charities in different ways.
From talking with my clients, smaller organisations seem more likely to have furloughed staff and that makes both fundraising and service delivery challenging. Some have made the WFH (“working from home”) transition with few problems, thanks to great efforts from their Operations and IT teams. And a few are finding that their portfolio of fundraising techniques means that income is holding up reasonably well, at least for the moment (interestingly, Direct Mail to older donors seems very resilient).
I hope that you are able to maintain your operations and income generation at close to normal levels, but we all need to have plans for uncertain times.
Probono Economics and Civil Society have published the findings of their weekly survey for early June, and it showed that 41% expect COVID-19 to have a large negative effect over the next 6 months, compared with only 9% who though it could be positive.
At times like this, it’s more important than ever to be very clear on the impact you want to have, and the key outcomes and outputs that will enable you to deliver it. If you do, it’s easier to identify possible areas to cut back on, without affecting your core work.
I am about to start a series of 1-hour webinars to help organisations like yours, to identify and review your impact, outcomes and outputs, as part of a Theory of Change. Click here if you would like advanced notice of the details.