Navigating Through COVID-19
Pro Bono Consulting Based on the Lifecycles Model
During this incredibly challenging time, you are working diligently to do what must be done, for the near term, to keep serving your clients. We know how urgently you need to make mission critical decisions about how to best utilize your resources. Many of our strategic planning clients are familiar with the Nonprofit Lifecycles Stages (created by Susan Kenny Stevens PhD) that SCC uses to guide organizations in decision making and planning based upon where they reside on the Lifecycles timeline: the Startup, Growth, Maturity, Decline, Turnaround, or Terminal Stage.
As a Capacity Lifecycle Consultant, SCC’s Renae Oswald-Anderson is offering a one-hour pro bono consulting session with any nonprofit organization that would like guidance and/or a sounding board for how best to address their present situation and prepare for the post-pandemic future.
QUESTION: Renae, how can the Lifecyle model help? How do you apply it to our current crisis around COVID-19?
RENAE: We have always been committed to helping nonprofits at every stage on their mission journey. Cheryl (Jensen) and I have used the Lifecycles model in many facets of our work with our clients. This crisis is really testing our organizational structures. Leaders are suddenly faced with having to manage very difficult decisions on everything from capacity to staffing to financial models in an unprecedented time of stress and uncertainty. How is the Board responding? Do they know what’s needed from them? Have they met virtually yet? What are the organization’s most pressing needs from a technology standpoint? How are volunteers being deployed if staff are being laid off? How do they best utilize their reserves? What kind of financing is available to them?
QUESTION: What might a complimentary hour of consulting look like?
RENAE: This gives an ED (or another designee from the organization) an opportunity to start thinking about how to focus on coming out of this three months from now—where do they need to focus their efforts? We’ll take a look at what the immediate landscape looks like for them. What has changed as a result of COVID-19? What has it pointed out to you about your organization’s capacity? It’s about planning for sustainability of the mission; of operations. This will help them to logically think through what has to happen next. What are the priorities? What needs to happen? Who can help? The conversation will help the ED identify the critical priorities based on where they are on the Lifecycle. In many organizations, different parts of the organization can be in different Lifecycles. For instance, a 20-year-old organization may have a new program or a new division that would be considered to be in the Startup or Growth Stage. There are different expectations depending upon where you’re at.
QUESTION: Does an organization’s strategic plan need to change in light of COVID-19?
RENAE: We’ll take a look at how COVID-19 has altered the work plan. If there’s a current strategic plan, what do you have to move down the pike? If your focus for the first six months of 2020 is “A, B, and C,” but you’ve suddenly suspended operations, you need to realistically look at different timeframes and priorities and how you communicate that to people. Perhaps the organization had every intention of bringing on a new position, but if they’re losing money due to COVID-19, it might get delayed and what does that mean for the organization?
QUESTION: Does a client need to know what Lifecycle they’re in?
RENAE: No. Prior to our consultation, I would review their website and ask for background and documents about their programs. During the call, we would do a cursory view. Then I would do a a mini-table top assessment using their core programs as their table top. The objective is to identify what we can do to position the organizations so they come out intact on the other side of this pandemic. That’s what we’re all hoping for.
To schedule a pro bono one-hour consultation with Renae, please call: 651.387.1612 or email: roanderson@strategic-cc.com Renae can meet with you via GoToMeeting or Zoom.