On Wednesday, 4/1, we welcomed members to our first-ever Virtual Town Hall.
Intended to build community and collaboration, our time together included a brief update regarding how Nonprofit Specialists has been responding to COVID-19, as well as an opportunity for members to share current challenges, needs, and ideas. Below is a summary of the conversation.
Update on Our Recent Efforts
- As a volunteer-run organization, Nonprofit Specialists has always relied heavily on our board and volunteers. In recent weeks, they have shown up for us in a big way – while also juggling their own personal and professional realities – and for that we are very grateful.
- In case you missed our early-March update, we’re thrilled to have welcomed four new members to our board in 2020: Robin Jenkins, Inacent Saunders, Jose Torres and Anne Turner. You can learn more about them on our Board page.
- They, alongside our other board members and volunteers, have been working intently to adapt our programming and operations to meet this moment and be there for our members. Some examples of those efforts include:
- When government funding was being allocated in response to COVID-19, we joined advocacy efforts to ensure our constituents were included in relief packages.
- We held a virtual Brown Bag Lunch on Wednesday, 3/25. The previously confirmed topic – Online Engagement & the Nonprofit Specialist: What’s Old, What’s New, and What to Do? – was adapted in response to the current context. A recap of that event can be found here.
- We’ve postponed our two spring in-person events and issued refunds. We’re currently looking at alternate dates and formats. Those events were:
• April 30th: Advancing Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the Nonprofit Sector: The Role of the Consultant (in collaboration with DYCD)
• May 27th & 28th: Nonprofit Consultants Institute (2-day intensive for current and aspiring consultants to build their practice) - We’ve gathered this list of COVID-19 resources for consultants, small businesses and nonprofits to support our members and your clients.
- We’ve been participating in weekly conversations with our colleagues at Ahead of the Curve (AOTC, a collaborative of NYC-based nonprofit capacity builders) to determine what’s happening in the sector, how we can help each other, and how we can avoid duplicating each other’s work. Currently, AOTC members’ individual and collective efforts are primarily focused on advocacy; connecting nonprofits to loans, grants and legal advice; and supporting nonprofits through online resources, virtual office hours, and webinars. More information on AOTC members can be found here: https://www.aheadofthecurve.nyc/
- We’ve been taking the pulse of our constituents – through surveys, conversations, and online communications – to get a sense of needs and happenings.
We have been and will continue to utilize the insights gained from our members and colleagues to inform our approach over the coming months.
Update on our Planned Efforts
- During the Town Hall, we shared some of the services we’re currently offering that we believe are particularly useful to members and the sector right now:
- Peer Advising – To allow for more 1-1 connections, we’re expanding our Peer Advising program to include a Peer-Peer option, in addition to the traditional Advisor-Advisee pairing; learn more here.
- Consultants Directory – We will continue promoting our network as a resource to nonprofits by highlighting our free public directory. (Be sure your profile is up-to-date!)
- LinkedIn Group – We also invite you to continue to post your questions or requests to our extended network on LinkedIn
- We also shared with members some ideas about possible new offerings, which we will be exploring the feasibility of implementing:
- Affinity Groups – groups of members from similar disciplines (e.g., fundraising, strategic planning, marketing and communications) informally meet to discuss trends, questions, etc.
- Member Meet-ups – cross-disciplinary, semi-structured gatherings that explore pre-established topics among members
- Webinars – more formal educational opportunities covering topics relevant to running a nonprofit consulting business
- For those ideas we ultimately implement, we will need additional volunteer support.
- Members interested in helping facilitate an Affinity Group are asked to please email info@npspecialists.org.
- We will follow-up regarding potential Meet-up and Webinar topics and facilitators at a later date.
Open Forum for Members
- The bulk of the Town Hall was spent exploring members’ current realities, questions, challenges, and concerns.
- Regarding current challenges and concerns, members shared the following:
- My pipeline is frozen (hopefully temporarily).
- My projects have dropped off since COVID and I’m struggling with how to reach out to clients compassionately to keep projects moving / get projects going as well as seek out new projects.
- My clients want me to cut back on my fees dramatically. How do we negotiate this as we continue to lose more and more of our contracts?
- I am new to consulting. Should I be posting advice/content via social media? If so, what is appropriate?
- I’m working to adapt strategy development from longer term strategic planning to more flexible strategic advising that addresses the near term, with an eye to longer-term goals.
- A true community of members helping members, others chimed in with suggestions that included:
- Now is the time to build relationships. Start by simply reaching out to clients to see how they are doing.
- Making decisions is very difficult right now. If feasible, consider offering your clients a pro bono strategy session.
- Compile and share resources that you believe would benefit your clients. These can be shared via a personalized email and/or on social media.
- Talk to your clients (or prospects) about approaching any contracted work in stages. Find something that seems meaningful to your client that you can do together in the short-term, and then revisit next steps once it’s complete.
- Work with your clients to adapt your previously planned approach to accommodate the new reality. Or agree to put things temporarily on hold, if now is no longer the right time for the effort.
Next Steps
We closed the conversation by thanking everyone for participating. We promised to distribute a recap of what was discussed, as well as the resource list that was shared.
We committed to continuing to explore and ultimately launch some new virtual services to support members, and reiterated our hope that those who have the capacity will consider volunteering to help. So keep your eye out for more updates coming soon! And if you haven’t yet, please complete this 2-minute member survey >>
