Thriving in Tumultuous Times

In Forces of Good, the reading assigned this week, the author spends a lot of time focusing on resiliency of non-profit organizations and their adaptability to change. Chapter 10 is appropriately titled, “Thriving in Tumultuous Times.” All of us can relate to this on some level; we have lived through the 2008 Recession. Only, when times do get difficult, spending tends to decrease, and wallets are tighter- understandably. Why would you donate to an organization when your stock portfolio has just plummeted? Or when you can't even afford to put dinner on the table? Yet, not only did many organizations outlined in the book survive the “Great Recession,” they thrived.

What makes the difference between an organization that has the capability to survive tough times? Personally, I think that the right leadership and sound decision-making are the key ingredients. My grandpa once told me that people who become President of the United States are cut from a different cloth than most people. Well, the non-profits described in the book, like City Year and Feed America, are cut from a different cloth also. People are the ones who make that slight difference between sinking or swimming. In non-profits, in my opinion, having high quality employees, donors, and volunteers is much more important than in other sectors.

How does this tie into what we are learning in class? How are supposed to quantify the quality of the employees of the finalist organizations? That might be an impossible question to answer. But, there are other numbers we can look at as well as the history of these organizations. For example, in 2008 when the Recession began, how did some of these organizations react? I don't want our money going to an irresponsible organization that was frivolous with their spending and has little foresight. I would also like to see if these organizations have shown their ability to think out of the box. Take a look at City Year. Despite plummeting graduation rates around the country, City Year managed to turn these numbers around in very high-risk high schools “by shifting its focus to educational outcomes than on various kinds of community service.” Then there's Self-Help, an organization that helps people with housing loans, which was hit hardest by the housing bubble burst. Instead of crying by themselves in a corner, they “ramped up their advocacy efforts.” They took the crisis and turned it into an opportunity. They advocated for new housing legislation in Congress and their CEO and other leaders in the organization were a vital part of the team behind the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, considerably the most important example of economic reform legislation since the Great Depression.

So what, the organizations we are working with are a little bit smaller and we have a little bit less money. That isn't a reason to belittle the work and the impact they have on the community. We are living in Binghamton in a time when Binghamton needs it's community to work together and help heal itself since industry left, leaving behind a semi-ghost town. We can't spend our time and energy on organizations that don't spend their time and energy on Binghamton.

P.S. I did some research to see what these organizations did around 2008. I think their actions are very telling of their resiliency and creativeness.

1) The Boys and Girls Club moved to their current location at 90 Clinton Street in 2009. (WOW!)

2) July 1, 2008: The Broome County Urban League was awarded a $1 million grant from ATTAIN, an organization that helps people further their technology skills. (Definitely important. This shows that they were economically healthy enough, showed the need, and that they proactively applied for a grant when funds were dwindling across the nation.)

My favorite line from this chapter is about how organizations need to play offensively and defensively. Share Our Strength CEO Bill Shore said, “You have to be willing to take risks... But when you're financially unstable, literally every $200,000 decision can preoccupy the board for hours. If financially stability is a football, when you have it, you call your own plays. When you don't have it, you're in a defensive crouch.”

Both the Boys and Girls Club and the Broome County Urban League played defensively. Let's keep that in mind when we're making our final decisions.