Every Other Cause

The world was in crisis before COVID-19. What happens to all those other causes now?

A World With One Cause

Yesterday, I was talking to a friend who works for an environmental nonprofit. She described how her team was re-assessing every element of their strategy in the face of COVID-19.

Entire strategies need to change, and in a matter of days, not weeks or months.

For her organization, it is not only their youth training that needs to be canceled. It is also possible their government campaigning will need to stop. Will their organization be perceived as out-of-touch for continuing to push environment issues in the midst of a public health disaster?

Crisis is Intersectional

The scale and pace of adaptation required of nonprofit leaders and activists is overwhelming. Entire strategies need to change, and in a matter of days, not weeks or months.

While leaders feel external and internal pressure to pause existing work, they know the pandemic is exacerbated by existing injustices. To list a few examples:

• Income inequality and lack of a living wage mean millions will be in immediate economic crisis once hours are cut or businesses are closed.
• Lack of universal healthcare means those without access to care are less likely to be treated, becoming ill themselves and infecting others.

The pandemic is exacerbated by existing injustices.

• Women in abusive relationships are more isolated and at greater risk under lockdown/stay-at-home/shelter-in-place orders.
• Children who are food insecure will no longer have access to meals at school.

While nonprofit leaders understand these links, many others do not. It seems that everyone’s attention — from politicians to supporters to the media — is locked on the crisis of the pandemic.

Practical Steps for Cause Adaptation

Nonprofit leaders need a way of assessing what their new role should be. Here are some suggestions:

1. Plan for the crisis…and after

When making strategic decisions, plan for a months-long period of crisis and shut-down in the US and Europe. This is the current expectation given both present and projected infection rates. Yet also remember that at some point the pandemic will be in the rear-view.

When making a decision, ask how an action will play out during the pandemic and how it will aid or harm the cause once the pandemic has ended. Thinking in two time periods is not easy, but protects against future harms.

2. Assess the new needs of beneficiaries

Advocates support and defend beneficiaries. Yet beneficiary needs may be drastically changed by the pandemic.

Undocumented immigrants face economic threats that are more immediate than their legal status. Incarcerated individuals face health threats that are more pressing that their need for education and job placement.

For many organizations, it will make sense to reorient their work to the current needs of the people they serve, to the extent they are able. Job placement specialists cannot become doctors overnight, but they can become advocates for health protections in prisons.

Staff can be a key source of information on the changing needs of beneficiaries and targets. Their own needs have also changed dramatically.

3. Determine the new “ask tolerances” of targets

In order to meet the needs of beneficiaries, advocates make requests of targets. This could mean lobbying legislators to pass a law. It could mean lobbying supporters to make a donation.

Even people with power and privilege are under tremendous stress and their tolerance for these asks has likely changed. Be particularly attentive to the response (or lack of response) from targets. It may make sense to pause current asks or check on target health and emotional well-being before asking.

4. Expect staff to have differing capacities to “carry on”

At Do Big Good, we believe information is the key to increased social sector efficacy. Yet few organizations will have pre-existing systems set up to capture information about the impact of the pandemic on their work. Ad hoc and relational sources are needed.

Nonprofit staff in particular can be a key source of information on the changing needs of beneficiaries and targets. Their own needs have also changed dramatically. Everyone is experiencing stress and overwhelm.

Different staff members will have different needs (and tolerances) for work. For some staff, maintaining as close to a normal routine as possible will be the thing that keeps them sane. For others, concentration on work will be impossible. For still others, a desire to work will be upended by childcare needs or illness for those who contract the virus.

A direct management approach is likely best. Using the preferred channel for casual office conversation (Slack, email, text, etc.) simply check in with each member of your team individually, ask how they’re doing, and ask if they need any adjustment to their current workload. Making these adjustments in advance is preferable to a cascade of uncompleted work or full-on burnout.

A Leadership Lesson from History

The pandemic is unprecedented in its scope and disruptive power. Yet similar global crises have occurred and activists of the past have had to make similar tough choices.

One such leader who made a tough — but ultimately beneficial — choice to reorient her movement was Emmeline Pankhurst, leader of the women’s suffrage movement in Great Britain.

When World War I began, Pankhurst made the difficult decision to pause the campaign for women’s voting rights and mobilized activists and suffrage organizations to support the war effort instead. The result, as one article notes, was a change in the social role of women:

Women working hard to help the war effort did much to change perceptions of their role in British society. They took on jobs usually carried out exclusively by men and proved they could do the work to the same standard.

This mass patriotic sacrifice had an unexpected effect. It advanced the movement’s original aims. In early 1918, while the war was ongoing, the first limited suffrage law for women was passed, enfranchising 8.4 million British women. Ten days after the armistice, the Parliament (Qualification of Women) Act was passed, allowing women to be elected to Parliament.

Though initially Pankhurst seemed to sacrifice suffrage for the war effort, she actually served both causes.

Though initially Pankhurst seemed to sacrifice suffrage for the war effort, she actually served both causes. She helped Britain get through the war and she won goodwill for her movement that translated into practical policy wins.

How can you apply Pankhurst’s broad strategic thinking to your work? How can you use the resources of your organization and its supporters to serve the needs of this crisis and your cause at the same time?

by Mary Joyce, founder and principal of Do Big Good.

Do Big Good is an impact measurement firm. We use participatory design to give mission-driven organizations the information they need to manage and maximize impact.

To learn about our impact measurement services for COVID-19 response, visit: www.dobiggood.com/covid

This article was originally published on Medium at https://medium.com/an-injustice/every-other-cause-7485add430b9