Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only. Please follow the guidelines issued by the WHO and your respective countries agencies and help in the effort to contain the spread of the Corona virus.
If you have decided that your NGO is in a good and relatively safe position to directly work against the outbreak of the Corona virus, you will definitely have to change your approach. You will not be able to continue with the projects and programs that you have been running until now. Your program will change drastically and you will need a good plan! Things will get hectic and chaotic at some point, so you will need a good roadmap that everybody can follow!
In this article, we cover some of the important steps that you have to take if you decide to keep your NGO working in this difficult time.
The first thing you should think about is to keep your staff safe! Identify vulnerable staff members with preexisting conditions or over the age of 60 and make sure they stay at home. Follow the developments closely and keep on checking the recommendations by the WHO about who is in acute danger.
Besides your staff’s health, you also have to think of their financial stability. Try to make sure that you can keep paying them, even if they have to quarantine and cannot work anymore. Talk to your donors about paying salaries etc., even if they normally don’t cover core cost. In an extreme situation like this one, many donors will change their minds and be more open to covering different kinds of costs.
When you decide to keep working and to adjust your programs, you have to talk to your donors first. Tell them what you are planning and that you want to use the money they gave you for your projects for the fight against Corona. Most of them will say yes to this. If they should not agree, also inform them that you will temporarily halt your normal programming due to the current situation and that you want to ask for an extension of possible deadlines.
Also Read: How to find funding in the Corona crisis?
You can also ask for more money. There will be a very high amount made available very soon from different sources, and your donor might have more money for you. Donors who already know you and have an established partnership with you are more likely to give to you again, so take advantage of this head start and ask if they can also support your emergency response.
You have to communicate with your partners and beneficiaries about what is about to happen. Beneficiaries need to be informed about why the current projects will be put on halt, what they can do and how they can participate in your emergency response. Your partners need to be in the same boat with you and need to be informed. Try to keep all this communication digital – all gatherings and meetings should be avoided.
Right now, is the time to move quickly – but that does not mean that you can skip developing a strategy and writing it down. In the next months, everybody in your organization needs to be on the same page, and there might be times when personal communication will become an issue. Having a well-known and established strategy will help you to stick to your plans and to work effectively. Take the time and discuss how exactly you will carry out your activities – but again, make it a virtual meeting.
As part of your strategy, you should think about how you will eventually go back to “normal”. At some point, the emergency of the situation will fade and you have to find your way back to your usual work. Make it a priority to include a switchback mechanism to business as usual – of course, adjusted to the “new normal” that we will eventually achieve.
____________________________________________
We have launched this online course where we want to give some tips for small to middle-sized organizations for how to prepare for a crisis – in this case, the corona crisis. There will be needs in a couple of weeks that you have to fulfill and your work can make a huge difference in your community. Make sure you are prepared as best as you can to have the maximum impact. In this course, our experienced expert Erik shares his knowledge with you and gives you important tips on how to get through this crisis. It will cover the following topics:
You will also receive a resource guide with important information about how to prepare your organization for this crisis and a list of potential donors that we will update daily.
Best of luck getting through this crisis and stay healthy!
Eva is based in Germany and has worked for nearly a decade with NGOs on the grassroots level in Nepal in the field of capacity development and promotion of sustainable agricultural practices. Before that, she worked in South America and Europe with different organizations. She holds a Ph.D. in geography and her field of research was sustainability and inclusion in development projects.
