Will Your Church or NGO Survive the Pandemic?

Hello and welcome back to the Chronicles from a Caribbean Cubicle podcast. I'm Francis Wade, and here's an article I wrote for the Jamaica Gleaner. It's entitled, "Will Your Church or NGO Survive the Pandemic?" Are you concerned that your church or non-governmental organization may not survive the combined punches of a pandemic and and a recession? You should be, but there's much you can do to intervene and turn things around. Most of us can appreciate the devastating impact of COVID-19 on industries such as education, entertainment, hotels, and restaurants, but there are other effects being felt in two sectors which have traditionally drawn strength from live gatherings of volunteers: Now that large assemblies have been banned, churches and NGOs are threatened as never before by recent unstoppable trends. The threat to churches. While your church is primarily seen as a place of worship, let's assume it's also an organization subject to the same requirements as others. It needs manpower and funding to maintain its operations. In particular, the Saturday or Sunday morning service plays not only a spiritual role, but it also serves a commercial activity—fundraising. Traditionally, this has been driven by donations from live attendees. In any recession, its elders would expect a dip, but this one is different. Their primary channel of creating value has been severely and indefinitely curtailed. This has led to a dramatic change in behavior on behalf of would-be congregants, particularly those who are lukewarm—the majority. Now, instead of putting on their Sunday best and sitting on a pew for the better part of the day, they are engaging in alternatives. Some are watching their home church's services online via Google search. Others have switched to more fulfilling broadcasts in other parts of the world. More than a few are simply distracted by social media, the news, exercise, giving the children extra lessons, and other activities. The fact is, they are all picking up new habits which will become quite hard to disrupt once the ban on assembling is lifted. Consequently, your church's recent drop in donated income may not be temporary. Neither is the reduction in attendance. And even when the bans lift, your elders will still have a recession to contend with. The Threat to NGOs. The challenge many NGOs face is a bit different. It includes their leaders. They don't have the benefit of a permanent pastor and probably elect new executives every year or two. Traditionally, Each incoming leader body learns its function from the one prior, primarily via face-to-face meetings. Its regular activities and fundraising events have also always been in person. So has its AGM where dues are collected and elections are conducted. COVID-19 has taken away all of these. Now, the leadership must engage using unfamiliar online tools like Zoom. In many NGOs, retirees play an important role, but they are least likely to use such tools. Unfortunately, some of these shifts threaten the existence of many churches and NGOs. Some have not responded well, going into hibernation—a wait-and-see approach. Their hope is that things will return to normal someday soon. Hopefully, your organization realizes this urgent existential threat and plans to devise a new strategy. Here are some steps to take. Number 1: Craft new commercial strategies, abandon the old. While your church or NGO may have built its existence on long, stable traditions, consider this a call to rethink everything. A mission of continuing our tradition might need to be replaced. Now you must define a fresh destination, one that will appeal to a highly distractible audience weary of in-person gatherings. This should mean looking 5 to 10 to 30 years to the future to craft the details of a vision in which you are unique in meeting your followers' needs. Once your endpoint has been defined, Fill in the steps to be followed over the time period. On the commercial side, use metrics such as members, donations, and special event income to show where your growth will come from. Include milestones along the way which describe the path to follow. Number 2: Draft new skills. If your board lacks the skills necessary, co-opt younger persons who have them. For example, if none of your leaders have regularly attended a range of virtual services, include someone who has. Ask them for help in defining new ways to add value which appeal to millennials and the successive generations. Time is of the essence. Don't delay because of pride. Instead, assume the worst—that Jamaica won't have a vaccine or achieve herd immunity in 2021. To save your organization from extinction in the meantime, forsake any wishful thinking and embrace the fact that there are irreversible trends at play which are moving against you. Rally your members and show them that this isn't about a temporary inconvenience but an entirely new way to fulfill your mission. Thanks for listening. Do you have an unsolved problem in your Caribbean company related to strategy, productivity, engagement, or business process improvement? Just visit a searchable listing of all my prior articles and you may be able to help yourself to a fresh line of thinking. Go to blog.fwconsulting.com or see the show notes.