Giving Compass' Take:

• Christopher Washington, writing for Forbes, discusses strategies for cultivating loyalty in nonprofit organizations and their leaders to increase resilience. 

• How can donors play a role in helping nonprofits thrive during the pandemic and beyond? What are the most significant hurdles for organizations right now, and how can loyalty help mitigate challenges? 

• Learn more abut nonprofit resilience during the pandemic. 

Nonprofit leadership can be demanding work. The many nonprofits organizations that I've worked with that have succeeded during difficult times have leaders who pursue a double bottom-line approach, one that assures both mission attainment and financial sustainability.

These leaders also seek the support of multiple stakeholders including government agencies, charitable corporations and generous donors. Under normal circumstances, the intentions, actions, cultural contributions and perspective of nonprofit board members, executives and staff must be in harmony in order to both achieve the mission and satisfy stakeholder expectations.

The recent Covid-19 pandemic, which affected nearly every nonprofit organization on the planet, illustrated the vulnerability of nonprofits to sociopolitical challenges, rapid technological changes, environmental pressures and global phenomena. This global disruption places great pressure on nonprofit leaders to rethink their goals, sources of funding and operations, bedeviling the most effective boards and executives.

In order to support "thrivable" nonprofit organizations under new pressures, a more holistic and future-focused perspective, one that also cultivates deeper leadership engagement and cultural cohesion between the board, management and stakeholders, is warranted.

How do you develop loyalty in yourself and cultivate loyalty in others? Based on Royce's work and my personal experience with nearly a dozen nonprofit organizations, I propose six ways to cultivate loyalty among nonprofit leaders.

  1. You must have a 'cause' that is worthy to be loyal to.
  2. A leader must be both willing and able to be devoted to the cause.
  3. Leaders must train themselves to recognize loyalty in others.
  4. Leaders must see in their mission the link to greater causes, and communicate in ways that link their loyalty to higher loyalties.
  5. Leaders must recognize that loyalty is perfected through collective efforts and shared sacrifices in service to the cause.
  6. Leaders should not underestimate the transformative power of false starts, disappointments and setbacks resulting from actual service to the cause.

Read the full article about cultivating nonprofit loyalty by Christopher Washington at Forbes.