NGO Leaders: 10 Steps to Stabilize, Adapt, and Lead Through Uncertainty

NGOs Receiving USG and UN Funding: You Have to Stop the Bleeding. Now.

If you work for an NGO that receives funding from the US Government (USAID, BHA, PRM) and/or UN agencies, your world looks dramatically different than it did just two weeks ago.

There are still many unanswered questions. Your organization should have dedicated teams actively working on advocacy and legal challenges related to the stop-work orders. In addition to those efforts, there must be intensive risk and crisis management taking place.

Here are my key recommendations for those managing and leading NGOs right now:

1. Assess Your Grant Risk Exposure

Understand your financial exposure across current grants and contracts. Conduct scenario planning: best case, worst case, and most likely outcomes. For each USG and UN grant (see my previous article on Need, Access, and Resources for how much cash the US government provides to different UN agencies), assess the likelihood of termination, modification, or resumption.

Leadership should rely on a cross-functional team to develop clear criteria for evaluating each program. Your staff are your best asset—bring them into the problem-solving process.

2. Review Labor Laws and Staff Contracts

Labor laws vary by country, and so do staff contracts. Conduct a quick but thorough legal and financial review to determine your obligations in the event of a hiring freeze or layoffs. Compliance with local labor laws is non-negotiable—otherwise, you may face lawsuits and additional financial liabilities.

3. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

Your organization is operating in VUCA (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity, and Ambiguity). You won’t have all the answers—but you need to project confidence and clarity. Brené Brown states that “clear is kind”.

Commit to regular updates to staff. Your organization doesn’t produce goods—you’re in the people business, and your people need to hear from you.

4. Gain 100% Clarity on Your Finances

Know your burn rate, income projections, and reserves. This will vary for each organization, so there’s no one-size-fits-all solution. However, you must overlay your financials with:

• Your grant risk assessment (from #1)
• Your labor cost analysis (from #2)

This roadmap will tell you which programs you can sustain—and for how long. Assume you may not be reimbursed, even if funding resumes. What can your organization afford to float?

5. Call an Emergency Board Meeting

Your board has a fiduciary responsibility to understand your risks and strategic direction. If financial reserves exist, this may be the rainy day they were meant for. But the board must determine whether using reserves is a strategic move—or if it simply prolongs the inevitable.

6. Implement Immediate Cost-Cutting Measures

This is not business as usual. Communicate necessary cost-cutting measures to staff, partners, and the board. Some immediate actions to consider:

• Hiring freeze – Effective immediately. No new staff unless mission critical.
• Pause consultant contracts – Leverage internal expertise instead. (Yes, this is coming from a consultant!)
• C-suite pay cuts – A visible commitment to shared sacrifice. Your board can reinstate normal pay once financial stability returns.
• Review all contracts and grants – Identify which can be paused, delayed, or canceled. Work with legal counsel to determine the best course of action.
• Consider temporary staffing adjustments – Explore voluntary unpaid leave and strategic restructuring. Again, involve your staff—engaged employees can help identify creative solutions.
• Develop guiding principles for trade-offs – Weigh the impact of suspending life-saving programs, cutting staff, or tightening budgets. The COVID-19 mantra "save lives and livelihoods" may serve as a useful guiding principle.

7. Conduct a Lessons-Learned Review

Once you understand your financial risks, ask: What needs to change?

Using private revenue as leverage for institutional funding is a solid strategy—unless that institutional funding comes from a single donor, such as the US government. The same applies to private revenue: Are you overly reliant on a single major donor? If that donor suspended their donation, would you be in crisis again?

Some organizations mitigate this risk by establishing funding ratio thresholds. For instance, one NGO I know maintains an 80/20 ratio—80% institutional funding to 20% private (or undesignated) revenue. If a grant opportunity would push them beyond that 80% threshold, they decline it.

This kind of financial discipline mirrors the approach of an investment advisor building a diversified portfolio. Thoughtfully established ratios can serve as a safeguard against overreliance on any one funding source.

As the New York Times quoted an organization in Sudan: “It was our fault to rely so heavily on one donor.”

For many NGOs, income diversification will be the biggest takeaway from this crisis—but there will undoubtedly be other lessons as well.

8. Consider Strategic Partnerships, Mergers, or Acquisitions

Look ahead—three, six, twelve months. Where do you see your organization?

• Could it become insolvent?
• Will it still be relevant if certain programs shut down while HQ operations continue?
• Are there partners you could merge with or acquire?
• Could local organizations take over some programming at lower costs?

These aren’t just contingency plans—they may be necessary survival strategies.

9. Engage Your Other Donors and Supporters

Your institutional funding may be frozen, but not all donors are gone. Engage individual supporters, local communities, and foundations who already trust your organization.

Myal Greene , CEO of World Relief, could teach a master class on how to mobilize support during the suspension of refugee resettlement funding. Take a page from leaders like him—tell your supporters what’s at stake and ask them to step up.

10. Communicate, Communicate, Communicate

There is no such thing as too much communication in times of uncertainty.

The Bottom Line: Act Now

Think of your financial runway: the shorter it is, the faster you need to act.

Most of you signed up to do hard things. If you work in emergency response, you were made for this. Your team already has the skills to navigate this crisis.

Lead on.