George Bohlender

It's important for management and leadership, including the board, to lead by example. You cannot afford to lose good, experienced staff and volunteers during a time of crisis. And you WILL lose them if you reduce their hours, reduce their pay, extend their hours at current pay, or cut back on resources they need to perform their work while making no similar changes to management or leadership pay, perks, and practices. Start cutting any fat from the top down and only extend this to the rank and file and operations if absolutely necessary and only to the extent that it may be necessary.

Change this to "Engage Stakeholders" and include not just your employees, but volunteers, beneficiaries, donors, and ambassadors/champions. Each will have a unique perspective to share, providing feedback that would not be available from just looking inwards. Particularly important is the feedback of beneficiaries, who will be hardest hit by any cuts to funding. They may be able to suggest adjustments to programs that will still provide impacts to their own beneficiaries, albeit reduced impacts or impacts over a longer time frame. One crucial point when engaging with staff is to ensure that management "leads by example" and shares the same pain as they expect staff to endure with pay cuts, changes to hours, etc.

Risk is managed BEFORE a cut comes, not after. It's important to diversify funding sources from the start to minimise the impact of potential shortfalls from any source(s). This includes raising funds through entrepreneurial endeavours, as being an NGO/NPO -- if that is your organisation type -- does not preclude you from making money, so long as profits are channeled into supporting your organization's mandate. If you haven't done this then you are having to be reactive by cutting operating and board costs, adjusting programs to minimise impacts to beneficiaries, tapping corporate donors and HNW individuals in targeted appeals for assistance, and perhaps engaging in targeted crowdfunding.

If discrepancies are found between what's been spent and what's been reported, it's important to determine 1) if they are major or minor, 2) if they are material or immaterial with regard to your organization's accounting practices and financial control policy, and 3) whether the client sought your organization's approval BEFORE spending beyond what was allocated. Funding agreements typically include a clause dealing with approvals for expenditures beyond those budgeted. Client projects seldom if ever go perfectly according to plan, so there will always be some discrepancies somewhere. It's important to determine whether the discrepancies are legitimate and necessary and whether they help the client meet the spirit of the grant provided.

Your organization may need innovation to become more efficient and effective in serving its members but are your directors and members onside with this? Look at the composition of your board and membership to determine how much buy-in you can expect to have and what issues are likely to present themselves during the project. Older directors and members may be reluctant or resistant to change for fear of having to learn new ways of doing things. The same applies to directors and members that have been with the organization for a long time. Moving forward, you will need to develop a plan to address their fears. This may include some handholding during the transition to the use of the new technology, system, or processes.

Give leaders and managers copies of Patrick Lencioni's book, "Death by Meeting," and insist that they read it and report back with their thoughts on how to implement what they feel are the most effective strategies described in the book for dealing with unnecessary and unproductive meetings.