The loss of revenue, the increase of unexpected expenses, and for some the decreased value of endowments due to coronavirus have left many nonprofits scrambling to make payroll. Unfortunately, the options to correct the financial challenges may include cutting salaries, furloughing staff, and laying off staff members. Aspen Leadership Group is one of the few search firms in the country offering free career counseling to nonprofit and advancement professionals and we offer 11 tips based on conversations and personal experience to help those affected prepare for their next job search.
The uncertainty of the Covid-19 pandemic has seemingly brought back an outdated pattern in fundraising that assumes or downplays what women can do, causing fundraisers to hesitate to intentionally engage women stakeholders. We’ve heard from women that they want to be heard, respected, asked for their opinion. When this occurs, they give in many ways.
ALG’s Search Team interacts with hundreds of advancement professionals each week. Today, these interactions are increasingly focused on navigating careers during an uncertain time. While candidates are concerned about their own positions or about an interrupted career trajectory, they also are developing new skills, deepening relationships with donors, and working in ways that they never imagined. Here is what we are hearing from candidates and recommendations we are sharing with them.
If you were working remotely before Covid-19, your transition to remote work was probably much easier than your colleagues who had been working at your organization’s home base. Responsibility for communication pre-Covid-19 generally fell to the remote worker. Now that burden has shifted to managers. If you are managing staff then there are new guidelines for managing up, down, and laterally. Your ability to be successful will revolve around how well you communicate, set clear goals and expectations, advocate for and provide the necessary tools for successfully meeting those goals and expectations, and maintain your organization’s culture and your team’s alignment to its mission.
Your ability to quickly reset your organization’s overall financial situation after COVID-19 will likely depend on attracting significant philanthropy. While all arms of your organization will make difficult sacrifices, your advancement team may be key to protecting your organization’s long-term viability, and you must work closely with leadership to assess, rethink, and reset critical staffing decisions.
We know that women organize quickly to offer support in a crisis. It’s natural to want to activate them now during the coronavirus response, but first we must pause, listen, then pace out a strategy.
Inside Philanthropy: As Fundraisers Take Stock of a Grim New Landscape, They See Different Paths Ahead
byAs coronavirus cases mount, fundraising has ground to a halt at some organizations but is being transformed at others. ALG senior consultants and advisors share insights about the current landscape and how to navigate.
As colleges and universities continue to work through the acute phase of the coronavirus crisis, Aspen Leadership Group saw a need to reach out to Vice Presidents to talk peer-to-peer and share challenges, successes, and ideas that could be shared more broadly. Don Hasseltine observed four key considerations for other advancement leaders as they enter the next phase of response, and collected innovative ideas to move forward.
We are all under great pressure as we face into this pandemic and its consequences. Lives are upended, schools are closed, work has shifted to virtual, and many are balancing worries about health, safety, income, and the changes that lie…
This is a trying time for everyone, including our team members. Lives are being upended as schools close or assisted living communities are locked down, alternative childcare or elder care is patched together, work is shifted to virtual, and we…