Nonprofits, let’s move beyond collaboration and coordinate

There’s this belief that the more we collaborate, the better off we are and for the most part, I think that’s true. Collaboration makes us stronger and smarter because when we engage with others, we learn from our mistakes and exchange best practices, and all of this encourages growth. Yet, I’ve also seen how collaboration can become this hackneyed word whose power becomes watered down in the verb form. When we collaborate over and over, it becomes akin to meetings where everyone leaves with the same action items from last week, and you only discover this after 20 minutes of going on unrelated tangents.

During moments of crisis, nonprofits benefit from having well-coordinated internal and external workflows. This is powerful because these workflows ensure that nonprofits can provide continuous services to their designated populations during a crisis. Collaboration is great, but coordination represents a deeper form of collaboration. Coordination relies on trust, intentionality, and consistency - and this requires more work.

Collaboration doesn’t always guarantee coordination but the former must exist for the latter to happen. I define coordination as the act of creating a very detailed contingency plan. But honestly, it’s about more than having a contingency plan. Coordination is like investing in keeping that plan updated. The reality of coordinating in the nonprofit sector is that oftentimes nonprofits are bogged down by constantly putting out fires. As a result, nonprofits don’t have the luxury of investing in coordination. Nonprofits tend to respond to situations after the fact and when organizations are reactive, this makes it harder (but not impossible) to invest in coordination. By investing in coordination, nonprofits are investing in the development of a pipeline that outlines specific resources capable of meeting particular needs during a crisis. This creates a very streamlined first aid kit for nonprofits.

Without this focus, I worry that nonprofits end up relying more heavily on the good-hearted nature of the sector to make things happen.

In moments of crisis, we are never fully prepared in that we will have all of the answers but I think nonprofits should build an instinct for coordinating a way to get those answers. Coordination creates conditions for preparedness that the sector has room to finesse. It’s not about having the perfect answer in a crisis. It’s about finding different and innovative ways to build a well-oiled supply chain in the social sector.

Opinions expressed in this post are my own and not the views of my employer.