Grounding your giving in times of crisis: Three steps for keeping your head above water
In these times of COVID-19, racial violence, social uprisings, and presidential transitions, pre-existing challenges are exacerbated, information is constantly changing, new conditions are emerging, and the urgency to respond couldn’t be higher.
Simply put, the last 20 months could be described as everything at once.
This all culminates in the feeling: it’s all happening right now and it’s just too much.
Making sense of it all is a challenge for everyone. For those in positions to leverage their resources to make a difference, it presents a unique kind of challenge – namely, the tension between the urgency to give now and the dynamic nature of the current environment, which makes good decision-making more arduous and time consuming.
Fortunately, there are steps we can take to allay this feeling, lessen the tension, and better position ourselves to make good and impactful decisions. Below are some steps and considerations that we have pulled together that we find helpful in grounding our giving in times of crisis. These steps will be helpful as the world continues to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic, but will also come in handy as you face other crises, times of change, or uncertainties throughout your philanthropic journey.
Step 1 – Acknowledge, process, and accept that you can’t do everything
The current moment is inundating us with information, difficult questions, gutting realities, and gut-wrenching decisions. In such an environment, it’s impossible for one person – or organization – to do everything. There are more communities, people suffering, and organizations that need support than any one of us can hold up. So, the first step to effective giving during a crisis is to acknowledge, process, and accept that fact. Once you’ve done that, you will be better positioned to assess what you can do, what you should do, and how to do it.
Step 2 – Set your intentions
The most critical factor in effective giving during a time of crisis is intentionality. Over the last nearly two years, you have had to decide if you want to continue your current philanthropic activities only, continue your current activities and ramp up your giving to support organizations in need of crisis support, or temporarily discontinue your current philanthropic giving and pivot your focus to solely support organizations addressing the crisis at hand. There is no right or wrong direction, but the longer you take to set your intentions, the longer the organizations you support have had to wait with the unknown. What is important in this step is for you to take the time to truly think about your intentions for giving, the impact you are hoping to achieve through that giving, and then make a decision on the direction you are going to take. Take a second now and reflect on the last two years; if you haven’t yet taken the time to process through this important step, we suggest you take that time now.
Step 3 – Develop your roadmap
Once you have explored the first two steps, the next area of focus in grounding your giving during times of crisis is to develop your roadmap. Having a clear and concise plan of action will help to mitigate delays in moving funds to often time-sensitive issues. Developing this roadmap at the beginning of the year – or at the starting point of your annual giving journey – will help to reduce stress and anxiety around giving. It is also important to note that this roadmap is not set in stone. If, along the way, you come across an organization or a cause that you feel deeply passionate about, you can always either add it to your plan or pivot, reduce, or eliminate other areas you were planning to give to; just remember that once you have pledged funds to an organization, the ethical step forward is to fulfill that pledge.
We hope these three pieces of advice help you during this ongoing pandemic and will continue to serve as a guide as you navigate future crises and moments of immense change.
Stay tuned for our next post where we will explore six ways to give with intention.