How would you pivot your non-profit program to address emerging community needs?

Our non-profit program will pivot by adopting a dynamic, needs-based approach to ensure our initiatives remain relevant and impactful. We will enhance our community engagement by establishing real-time feedback mechanisms and conducting regular assessments to identify shifting priorities and emerging challenges. Leveraging data-driven insights, we will tailor our programs to address specific, pressing needs, such as climate resilience or economic support. Collaborating with local stakeholders and experts, we will design and implement flexible solutions that adapt to evolving circumstances, thereby strengthening our capacity to foster sustainable development and social equity in our communities.

In our work, we're always trying to balance the "way we've always done it" with "what the needs are today". A few important things to keep in mind: 1. Don't ask for help - ask how you can help. Nonprofits often ask donors for suggestions, but it's more effective to ask them what challenges they are facing and try to address them in your own way. 2. Involve stakeholders in leadership, including your board. This ensures that you have access to feedback from people who understand the shifting landscape of your work. 3. Test and test again. Your mission should be broad enough to allow for reimagining programs, trying new approaches, and exploring unconventional partnerships - small scale piloting is a great way to learn.

Have you made it easy for your stakeholders to identify these emerging needs to you and your team? Though you'll always have to do needs assessments, it's good to have accountability stakeholders who are ready to tell you when this shift occurs. Being vulnerable and relinquishing this task to your community can be scary, but arguably this is what nonprofits were meant to do. So set up systems where both you stakeholders can come to you or where you/ your organization go to them (ex: a survey by your organization). *This will also keep you ahead of these emerging issues and save you lots of time!

There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in. Desmond Tutu

Find your champions and use them. Whether they be board members, staff or volunteers, it is vital that these champions for your pivot be vocal, positive and willing to explain their positions. In this way your organization can then communicate this change and its reasons to your wider audience and the overall community.

Data and extensive listening to people with a lived experience. Data grounds knowledge. The voices of those with lived experience enlighten opportunities.

Para dinamizar um programa sem fins lucrativos e garantir que ele responda às necessidades emergentes da comunidade, o gestor precisa das seguintes habilidades: * Monitoramento constante: Implemente um sistema de acompanhamento contínuo das necessidades da comunidade. Isso pode ser feito através de pesquisas, parcerias com líderes comunitários e o uso de dados abertos. * Flexibilidade: Esteja preparado para adaptar rapidamente seu projeto. Planos detalhados são importantes, mas a capacidade de redirecionar e responder a novas demandas é fundamental. * Comunicação transparente: Mantenha a comunidade informada sobre as atividades do projeto e os resultados alcançados. A transparência fortalece a confiança e o engajamento.

It is increasingly important to understand the links between community needs and near-term responses to them, and the root causes and systemic drivers that create needs and barriers to progress in the first place. Building alliances across communities on systemic and structural change is key to transformative action.

When engaging in the pursuit of providing community based human/social services programs, it is prudent to first assess the specific type(s) of these services are needed in a particular community; since most, if not all communities, are not alike. It is extremely important to get community residents involved in planning and organizing what specific services are needed in their community. As we like to say in the social work field is that when endeavoring to start a new human/social services program, remember that "You cannot be all things to all people. If you endeavor to do so, you are doomed for failure"! Plan. Strategize. Implement. Deliver.

Before committing to a full pivot, try testing out the program changes and getting feedback via live AMAs or office hours. Part of good program development and design is not seeing these steps as linear but as fluid and iterative. Communication is essential throughout the process, not just in the implementation phase. To truly build programs for your community you need to be transparent and open. Community leaders can do a lot by listening more, asking questions, and continually sharing the community vision and goals with members. When members know how to contribute to programs and the ways in which their input and participation benefits the collective, they’ll feel more valued and communicate more transparently as a result.

If your nonprofit isn't partnering with other likeminded businesses, groups, and people then you are loosing out on a lot of 'impact.' You don't have to go to a fancy networking event or know a friend-of-a-friend-of-a-friend (you get the picture) to find partners. Identify who these potential partners are (aka who else cares about 'x' issue) and reach out! Call, show up in person, and be ready to make friends and be discouraged at the same time. In the end the partnerships and impact you and your organization will be able to make will be WELL worth the leap.

A pivoting approach for non- profits means a thorough reassessment of the basic assumptions and tenets against new community needs and plan the shifts and pivots. The non-profit must start with the key indicators for the new needs. This will direct the pivoting; whether it has to be significant organization - wide or smaller program level change. establishing and maintaining continuity must be guarded to ensure credibility and trust with the stakeholders.