It’s time to make a decision. And the quicker you make it, the greater the chance your organisation or business will have of surviving the many downturns we are already seeing the Coronavirus (COVID-19) bring. The decision is this:
Will you look at all the problems that the Coronavirus is bringing? Or will you choose to look for solutions?
There will be impacts from this, and big ones at that. Organisations and businesses are already seeing negative impacts in terms of events being cancelled, fundraisers cancelled, concerts and promotional tours cancelled, facilities closed, appointments cancelled, work contracts not being renewed…the list goes on and on.
While we can’t do a lot about the need to cancel so many things, what we can choose to do at the moment is change our MINDSET. We need to switch to problem-solving, solution-based thinking. And the sooner you do it, the better.
If you’re not a natural problem-solver, this is going to be hard. Really hard. But you can do it. Do you know why? Because this is about working TOGETHER, not alone.
Just because we might not be able to gather in large numbers like we could two weeks ago, and just because you might be working from home, this doesn’t mean that you can’t pull your team together and work through this as a collective. The responsibility is not just on one person to find solutions to stop our businesses and organisations from going under, it’s about bringing in the huge value of your team and all their ideas (especially the crazy and out-there ideas at the moment).
If you’re an Organisation or Business, this is your chance to:
Work together as a team. I am not a fan of hierarchical structures, but for the sake of clarity for the broad audience reading this post, you should be providing easy opportunities for the ‘highest’ in the team to the ‘lowest’ to share their ideas. Start a Slack channel, Create a Trello board, sign up to Asana, create a Google spreadsheet. Whatever your organisation uses instead of face-to-face meetings and workshops, now is the time to use those tools to your advantage.
Think outside of the box. If people are no longer coming to you, change how you do things. Don’t keep sitting in an empty shop hoping things will change. Don’t keep holding and cancelling workshops with no participants. People will start coming back eventually if you’re still operating, but this situation is not likely to change in the short term. Here are some ideas for the kind of problem-solving, solution-based thinking I’m talking about:
If you’re a cafe, sign up to the Hey You App. It’s a contactless way for customers to order and pay. See whether you can open a window to serve people from if we get to the point where open eating spaces are closed. If you serve great coffee with great service, people won’t mind how they order or how they get it.
If you run workshops, sign up to Zoom, Hangouts or Slack quick smart, and learn how to run a video conference. These apps all have free versions. People are working from home, they’re not on holiday. They still want and need to learn. That includes undertaking professional development.
If you’re a hairdresser, start going to people instead of expecting them to come to you. You will need to check your insurances before doing this, but take out extra coverage if that’s what you need to do. Start cutting hair at people’s homes, or on their front verandah. Doing a colour might be tricky, but most people will probably think that a cut with no colour is better than no cut at all!
If you’re a church or religious organisation, checkout what Crossway is doing. As one of the biggest churches in Australia, Crossway cancelled all their services from last Sunday and are now live-streaming each week.
If you sell products and don’t have an online store, set one up now. This goes for Not-For-Profits and businesses alike. Get your social media pages set up and be present. Social distancing means people will be spending a lot of time online. Help them engage with you. Help them buy from you. This is your new store-front.
Break the mould. With so many people working from home, it’s likely people are going to experience internet connection issues. Many people also have their kids at home from school, kindergarten and daycare. If you’re a manager or leader, have a think about whether you really need people to work standard 9-5 hours. If your team is tied up during the day with kids at home or a struggling internet connection, why not let them work during the evening and night? My bet is people would rather work some strange hours at the moment rather than lose their job. Plus it means your organisation can keep operating.
Ask people to consider donating the cost of their ticket for a cancelled event. If you remind people of the need your organisation addresses and the difference you’re making, chances are they’ll be happy to donate the cost of any cancelled event tickets. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra did a great job of this, by choosing to set up free live streaming of concerts, while also reminding people that they are a NFP and that it’s our chance to help ‘enrich lives through music’. Very clever!
Join our Slack Community. This is a space for people to share ideas around grants and funding. Share your needs, share new grants, and let’s see what problems we can solve together. We’ve started a specific #covid-19 channel to share all things related to COVID-19 and funding. Check it out.
If you’re a Funding Recipient:
Read the grant and funding advice I shared last week. The advice covers funding agreements, reviewing project impact, working in partnership and the need for early communication between funding recipients and funding providers.
Come up with solutions to existing programs wherever possible. Choose to adopt problem-solving, solution-based thinking. See the list above for some ideas.
Broaden your grant search. When searching for grants, target funding providers who focus on innovation, technology, and community connectedness. Our Grants Directory makes this very easy to do. Use our keyword search to find grants for any of the terms suggested above.
If you’re a Funding Provider:
Provide grants for the establishment of online courses, programs, app subscriptions and tech infrastructure. Make the application process simple, with a quick turnaround time. Organisations need this funding now.
Think about how you can meet your objectives to fund programs which are a little different to what you normally fund.
Reward applicants and existing funding recipients who are working on solutions. Work with them.
Consider whether your corporate volunteering program can contribute through online volunteering. Your tech team now has a whole new way to contribute their skills in the NFP sector!
While your own team and resources are usually the best place to start for ideas, if you want input from me to help make the switch to problem-solving, solution-based thinking specific to your organisation or business, feel free to book a consultation. All consultations are done over the phone, through video-conference or chat - perfect for this social distancing phase we’re in.
Onwards and upwards everyone!
Jessie Ballantyne
Founder & CEO
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