Last week Shari Graydon — editor at Informed Opinions, a Canadian nonprofit working to elevate women’s voices in the media — wrote a beautiful article about the opportunity that the pandemic is offering us. She argues that this crisis is an opportunity to decide what we want to take forward with us, and what we want to leave behind.

So, now is the time to decide what we want the future of social change work to look like — what we want to take with us into the future, and what we will leave behind.

Here are some things I think we should leave behind:

  • Powerless Nonprofit Leaders For too long we have told nonprofit leaders that they are not worthy of the money, time, effort, people, resources, and political power that their social change goals truly require. And I’m sorry to report that you, dear nonprofit leaders, have internalized those messages.
  • The Belief that Money is Scarce I know this is heresy right now, but I truly believe that there is plenty of money out there to address the social challenges we face. However, social change work has forever been stuck in a debilitating scarcity mindset. And the scarcity mindset breeds fear — our fiercest enemy.
  • Martyred Social Change So often as nonprofit leaders you are expected (and expect yourself) to sacrifice your own needs for the sake of your social change mission, your clients, your board, your funders. Those days must end. Each one of us is only able to give what we ourselves have in abundance. So we must move to a place where you –our fearless social change leaders — ask for and receive everything you need.
  • Inequality in All Forms There is already a growing drumbeat to recognize the rampant racial inequality that this crisis has uncovered. In addition, let’s recognize and fix the rampant inequality that happens inside and outside of nonprofit organizations.

Read the full article about nonprofit sector practices and mindsets amid COVID-19 by Nell Edgington at Social Velocity.