Is Your Organization Ready for What Comes Next?
If you’re like many of our clients and partners, 2020 has been a year like no other in your organization’s history. A series of intersecting crises has prompted you to pivot programs, revise protocols, and/or adjust expectations on the fly. And now, even as you continue to grapple with how best to respond to evolving challenges, you also feel the pressure to think ahead.
As 2020 winds down, we know many of its challenges remain—and likely will for a while. But we also know more than we did months ago about the health, racial justice, economic, and civic engagement issues we must address. Now is an opportune time to take a step back to reflect both on your organization’s own strengths and challenges and on the roles you can play in helping to build back better.
We’ve written previously about the specific capabilities and skill sets that organizations will need to survive, emerge stronger, and advance a more equitable sector and world. Still, we know it isn’t always easy to identify what assets you have or to pinpoint the capacities you will need to obtain—especially when you are in the thick of your everyday work. That’s why we’ve developed an easy-to-use self-reflection tool to help our clients and partners think through where they are and what they will need to get where they want to go. This tool can be particularly helpful if you’ve found yourself:
- Facing a new challenge and realizing that your team does not have the capacity to address it effectively
- Wanting to integrate what you’ve learned about your grant making into your current process but not knowing where to start
- Realizing your organization needs new systems to respond to rapidly changing grantee needs
- Frustrated with the time it takes to make decisions
Any of these conditions may signal a need to reassess essential systems within your organization. Doing that work now can help you find a better path to long-term sustainability and even greater impact. We know this sort of self-reflection can sometimes feel overwhelming, but we have seen how powerful it can be in ensuring organizations achieve their goals. We hope you will find this new tool helpful. If you need any support in using it or in navigating challenges related to it, please let us know.
Download the Self-Reflection Tool Here.
Senior Director Monique Mehta leads Arabella’s ChangeWorks service area, which includes organizational design and development, operational planning, change management, and implementation strategies for a variety of philanthropic and nonprofit initiatives and vehicles.
Managing Director Melanie Torres leads Arabella’s client innovation and strategic planning efforts. She works across the firm’s leadership team and portfolio of projects to identify and build new service capabilities to better serve the philanthropy and impact investing sectors.