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A new season is upon us. April brings us many variations of religious holidays – Ramadan, Easter, Passover – reminders of new beginnings and a time to reimagine what is next for ourselves and our communities. I have been doing my own reflection as we work to prepare for the upcoming Leadership Summit happening virtually May 4 and in person May 11 & 12. Our Leadership Summits aren’t ordinary conferences where a group of experts stands at the front of the room to tell you what you should know. Instead, you are at the center of the space – holding and owning, thinking and talking, and reimagining together, from the thoughts being shared, what might come next.
The genesis of this year’s Summit is actually found in a newsletter article I wrote in December 2021 when I ended by asking “what if?” I have shared portions of that article below in hopes that it provides a high-dive platform from which we can all leap together into what comes next. We certainly have a few more words to describe the life we are leading today but, equally, most of us leading, working, and governing nonprofits are still wrestling with deep ambiguity about the future. For example, we know that the Great Resignation – noted below – has turned into what many call the Workforce Shortage. And we consider it, too, as the Great Reshuffle because employees are no longer loyal to working only in the nonprofit or private sector. This means employers must attract and retain people who are more willing to shift sectors based on pay, benefits, and balance for their lives and families. The fluidity of the workforce means life and death decisions for some nonprofit service providers, and for many more it means that based on some fairly broken funding models in philanthropy, government grants and contracts, and more, the ability to compete in the marketplace is near impossible. More recently I have also reflected that our workforce and funding dynamics are a lot like living in a giant snow globe where so much is in the air that it is hard to know how it will all settle out. But it is break-up season in Alaska, and so maybe – just maybe – the snow will melt, and the sun will shine and our collective next steps will be more sure. Until then, we are standing with you to ask “What if?” and “what’s next?”
Excerpt from December 2021 Newsletter on Reimagining the Way We Work
From life-quakes to the Great Resignation – and considering what comes next for our workplaces. Join me.
Life Quakes – That’s what we called the personal experiences we saw all around us in the early part of the pandemic. Isolation, despair, divorce, job loss, the childcare crisis, isolation of the elderly – this list is inadequate in naming the cracks and chasms that appeared over the last two years. We watched as this slow-motion disaster ripped through our lives at breathtaking speed – rendering time almost irrelevant and eliminating the boundaries between our personal lives and our daily workplace experiences.
Staff meetings were now in our living rooms, makeshift offices in our bedroom, and on our kitchen tables. The impact of each person’s experience was woven into every staff meeting or mundane scheduling activity. It seemed that each conversation was an invitation to be more human as we turned toward personal connections in the workplace because they were unavoidable and because we deeply needed them. I, along with other leaders I know, planned meetings that focused only on personal connections to better support each person while also keeping us connected as a team.
Quakes gave way to aftershocks, which stayed consistent but lessened in intensity. With vaccines and increased attention on accessible health care, hope seemed possible again. We began to think about tomorrow, not just getting through to the end of the workday. We also moved to a time of Re-assessment – asking ourselves what is most important in this newly recognized fragile life. We were able to break the frame on so many assumptions that everything we knew now seemed like a question rather than a statement of fact. We walked around carefully with one another, with a common sense of understanding that most questions and answers were emotionally charged with equal parts exhaustion, hope, and uncertainty.
Making life more meaningful seemed like our collective responsibility. And so, too, in this stage we focused on what we could control. Employees asked for wage increases, title changes, time off, and family leave. Demands for workplace equity were more seen, heard, and heeded (at least more than before). Travel to reconnect with family members became a higher priority, and unspent time off that was loading up our balance sheets was now a conversation. Change was in the air – our tolerance for the intolerable was no longer acceptable as our voices grew louder and more people found their footing and took action.
Maybe we should have seen it coming, but it still seemed to surprise most of us – all the questioning, all the reckoning of how to navigate a world with less health security, fewer childcare options, and less pay than the work deserves and demands. The Great Resignation was in so many ways inevitable, if we had been looking for it. This exodus from the workplace is complicated. On the one hand it is a clear condemnation of our current systems that value the essential work but on the other hand devalues the essential worker. It is also condemnation of a system that requires working parents but undermines the role of parenting. And it is a reckoning of the false choice between economic health and the public’s health and well-being. Woven into this complexity are the pre-pandemic and ever-present workplace inequities and biases that have only been exacerbated. There is no sound bite for all the reasons behind the Great Resignation. What is clear is that true change in our systems is both required and overwhelming for those still in the workplace but is necessary to convince people to stay or to recruit the next workforce to lead the way.
Indeed, if it took only a simple policy shift or a budget adjustment to compete, that would be one thing. But our budgets are baked within grant agreements or contracts or Medicaid reimbursements that have never covered real costs – and certainly don’t now. Add to this that with every staff resignation the work and stress only compound for those who stay.
Even in the midst of this weight and worry, another phase is on our horizon – one of Reimagination of the Workplace. It has already begun, and more is coming as nonprofit board and staff leaders ask different questions about the way forward. Reimagination will not simply be about living wages, but, yes, it should include that, too.
There are signs that we are on the verge of this new era of re-imagination. A nonprofit colleague recently reframed in a social media post that this emergence out of the Great Resignation is actually a great opportunity. She wrote with excitement about how she saw the opportunity for the next generation of staff to truly step-up and step-in to their leadership in ways that simply were previously unavailable. Typically, our nonprofits are so flat that leadership development has often meant that we have to “go-out to go-up.” However, a re-imagined workplace could mean that leaders can now “stay-in and step-up.” What a gift. Sure, maybe all the experience and skills are not there yet. So in our re-imagination we not only get to think about a new worker but a new way of supporting each other.
In this new era, we have to ask new questions about how we bring people into our organizations. Let’s be sure it isn’t just “jump in and see if you swim” but rather conscious support that is more like mentoring and coaching than supervising. All our roles get to change in a re-imagined workplace where the emphasis is on strengths and skills and welcoming new perspectives rather than compliance and constant supervision or worse, doing nothing and hoping that the person doesn’t fail. This takes a different kind of time, energy, and commitment. We may not think we have the time because we are tired and have been doing too much to absorb too few employees. But this is what it takes now to create spaces for leaders to rise, to create possibilities we could not see before, to be flexible in new ways, and to think differently.
I can see this new era dawn in organizations that have struggled to retain front-line staff only to be hammered yet again in the Great Resignation. They are on the verge of thinking differently. Their conversations start with “what if…” and move to exploring a model that does not exist until they invent it. For this to actually occur, their loyalty to the organization will fall to loyalty to those their missions serve. By placing the client in the center of their decisions and not the preservation of the institution or their own egos, the opportunities are powerful. The results could manifest in a chance for a livable wage, real healthcare benefits, accountable and standardized practices of care, and so much more. To be clear, mergers are not necessary for these results to happen but that is one possibility. Moreover, what could be reimagined is a better funded system of services that matches the intentions and the actions of leadership to prioritize front-line staff. What if…
More examples will take form as we all seize the opportunity to reimagine what is possible in our workplaces. What I know now is that we can go there willingly as employers or be pushed by the workforce. What I also know is that we will have to lean on each other to find the energy to think creatively and differently about what is possible, to ask “what if…” together. The temptation to just “go back” to what we knew might feel comfortable, but the consequences now are too great. A welcoming workplace that fosters a sense of belonging, that centers the personal, that focuses on quality results, and that values creative, collaborative solutions is our new normal.
What is your answer to “what if?” Come ask the question – come be part of our exploration to find the answers at our Leadership Summit. We can’t wait to see you. Let’s reimagine together.
Laurie
We’re partnering with the National Council of Nonprofits to learn more about the workforce shortage in the nonprofit sector. Is your nonprofit struggling with unfilled vacancies, long waiting lists of people seeking services, chronic burnout, and other challenges like employee turnover? Or is the crisis of nonprofit workforce shortages a thing of the past?
A major survey and report in late 2021 identified the scope of the problems related to nonprofit workforce shortages and identified both public policy and practical solutions that have helped organizations hire and retain the staff they need to advance their missions. We invite you to complete the survey and help the nonprofit sector tell its story.
Alaska Board Match is an online match tool created to help nonprofits establish more diverse, inclusive, and welcoming board rooms. This site also assists in pairing Alaskans ready to serve local nonprofits in need of board members. Have you created an account for your organization? Find your next high performing board member today!
Are you getting spam emails and phone calls about the Employee Retention Tax Credit? While we don’t recommend engaging with the marketing calls, we DO recommend finding a trusted source to see if your nonprofit is eligible.
If your organization experienced a shut-down due to COVID-19 in 2020 or 2021, and revenues declined as a result, you may be eligible. The program is active through April 2024 for 2020 credits, and April 2025 for 2021 credits. We recommend contacting your CPA firm (perhaps the one who prepares your 990) to help you determine if your organization is eligible, and assist with the filing. These services will come with a fee, which could be calculated as a percentage of the credit received.
Relationship reckoning – reorientation – reassessment. These words don’t just reflect trends coming out of the pandemic but also reflect behavior we see every day in our board rooms, staff rooms, volunteer pools, and maybe even in our personal relationships. We are indeed in a state of flux in our connections to one another and in the ways we choose to spend our time. I say this not as an outsider to it all but as a person who is both living it and seeing it across the sector.
In my lifetime, the only point of mild comparison to what I see today is what happened after 9/11. Americans made one-time donations to a common cause more than ever before, and then shifted their giving and volunteerism dramatically to areas that mattered more than whatever they had been doing before. This was a reckoning in the sector on a massive scale as we watched shifts in giving of both time and money play out over a few years. Back then and today I have explained it to myself as a reckoning with our own mortality, essentially asking “Is it worth it?” Of course, 9/11 and the pandemic are vastly different, but at a large scale we are seeing similarities in behavior as people consider what is important in their lives and then making different decisions about their work, money, and volunteerism. And, of course, there are also compounding economic factors both at the state and national levels that make these choices even more poignant.
All this shifting, rethinking, and transitioning can feel incredibly personal as someone leaves your organization’s board, staff, or volunteer team. I have felt that, too. It can feel isolating, like it might only be happening to you. And it can feel overwhelming because, of course, you want the person to find their own peace in their choices, even as those choices impact your mission. By all accounts, it is a lot.
The consoling news is – first, you are not imagining this and you are not alone, and second, this is a phase. We have named this time before as liminality and reminded ourselves that we can get through to the other side. We have to hold a vision of the future that defines where we are going and why it matters. We have to come together to navigate through to the other side because support is a sign of leadership strength. And we have to hold all the ambiguity of this time as a gift that helps us better recognize our assumptions. It is true that with ambiguity also comes the more difficult news – we don’t know how long this phase will last.
Since this is where we are together, we are leaning in with you by focusing on tools and resources that can help get through this time of shifting priorities.
Attending to shifting volunteer board service
New research is available on volunteerism and the impact so far of the pandemic. AmeriCorps, in collaboration with the U.S. Census Bureau, has released its annual Volunteering and Civic Life in America report that shows volunteerism trends at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The research finds that formal volunteering through organizations dropped from 30% of the public in 2019 to 23.2% in 2021. While the data for our state continues to show the generosity of Alaskans with their time, we also see big shifts in our more formal volunteer roles like board service.
One tool to help you with shifts in your board is our newly launched Alaska Board Match site. A dream in the making, this tool is an easy and accessible way to attract new board members to your awesome teams. Let us be clear, we are thrilled that every current Alaskan serving on a board is an important member of your team AND we need to always cultivate relationships for future board members. Our goal at Foraker is for every nonprofit to have a clearly defined process for strategic recruitment, thoughtful engagement, and a graceful exit. This cycle should not happen by accident. Instead the process must be thoughtful and managed through a board succession plan, which differs from a staff succession plan in several ways. Importantly, both plans have purposeful action in common as they both attend to the planned and unplanned departure of key people on your team. The board match site is not a magic wand for the whole plan, but it does break through the common refrain of “where do we find people?” that often gets groups stuck by inaction. We have big plans for the future of this site including the ability to sort by region and subject area interest. However, before we can do that, we need even more people and nonprofits to log on and take part. You can help make that happen by sharing the tool with your professional and personal networks as a way to help Alaskans who want to spend their time in meaningful ways engage as board members.
Attending to shifting workforce
Since we devoted our last newsletter to this topic and the challenges and solutions we propose, I will be brief here only to say what so many of us are feeling. The challenge may be fewer available people because of out-migration in our state, but the real issues lie in low or stalled access to unrestricted cash to meet the marketplace demands of the workforce. Yes, there are many more issues at play. But when it comes down to it, if we can’t access unrestricted funding from private foundations, corporations, individuals, and government sources, then our ability will be reduced to deliver the services our community needs.
Attending to shifting charitable contributions
Just a few days ago, we stood outside the capital in Washington DC with some of the nation’s leading nonprofits and our stalwart partner the National Council of Nonprofits to endorse and celebrate the Charitable Act, a bipartisan bill introduced early this month in the U.S. Senate. The history in a nutshell of why it matters to Alaskans is that before tax reform in 2017 about 22% of Alaskans itemized their tax returns. One of the long-standing benefits of itemizing was the ability to deduct charitable contributions to 501(c)(3) nonprofits. Since tax reform, roughly 5% of Alaskans now itemize. Of course, Americans (and Alaskans) are not solely motivated to give to causes they care about because of a tax break, but it does matter, and the data proves that without it we are worse off. Nonprofits are not supported in the way that helps them achieve more mission and individuals don’t get a tax break for doing good in the world. Additionally, private giving can’t be fully leveraged against government and corporate contributions.
For those of you tracking this issue, you might remember that in the CARES relief package there was a small incentive to encourage more Americans to support nonprofits who were hit hard by the pandemic both in their mission work and as employers. That relief is no longer available. The new Charitable Act seeks to create a more substantial and longer lasting incentive for non-itemizers by allowing deductions to charitable organizations up to one-third of the standard deduction – or up to $4,600 for individuals and $9,200 for those filing jointly. This could be so good for Alaska’s nonprofits and Alaskans. While charitable giving can never replace – nor should it – the partnership we have with government to deliver services to Alaskans and Americans, it will help us leverage every dollar. We encourage you to support this legislation by urging our delegation to stand with us as the bill makes its way through Congress. To learn more, read the press release announcing the bill, text of the bill, and joint letter by 44 organizations (including Foraker) from 40 states and the National Council of Nonprofits and the letter from the Charitable Giving Coalition, signed by nearly 700 nonprofits from 49 states.
And so much more…
While I was in DC, I had a wonderful time with about 15 staff from each of our delegation offices exploring the scope and scale of Alaska’s nonprofits and the fundamental role we play in our state’s economy and communities. We also explored many of the long-standing and new services and tools in our Foraker toolbox. In addition to the classes, leadership and personalized organizational support, we also walked through the Pre-Development Toolkit which is designed to help nonprofits, tribes, and local governments navigate potential capital projects, like those slated inside the Infrastructure Bill, and those that might move forward through the federal funding mechanism known at the “earmark.” (By the way, the deadline for submitting earmark requests is March 17. I was cautioned that even though that is St. Patrick’s Day, we should not confuse an earmark request with a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow—fair enough.) If your organization has a capital project on the horizon, please be sure you walk all the Pre-D steps. It will save you time, money, energy, and your community will end up with a much better result. We also shared the Alaska Infrastructure Collaboration Committee’s joint website, AKfederalfunding.org, which was created to track federal funding coming to Alaska and the opportunities to collaborate for success.
The reality is that if you consider yourself new or seasoned, or starting up or deeply complex and mature, we are ready to meet you where you are to help you get where you want to go. While we face enormous challenges right now as a state with staffing shortages, decreased volunteer engagement, dangerously slow payments in government grants and contracts, and lower levels of charitable giving, we can reach for the tools together and take steps that feel productive, supportive, and right for us. You are not alone in this reckoning – we are standing right beside you.
Laurie