How can businesses support their NGO partners through the impact of COVID-19?

The challenges we see are happening at multiple levels:

  1. Individuals – COVID-19 has impacted on individuals in different ways to different degrees. Some people will have caught it, taking them physically out of the equation. Some will be highly distressed, concerned about vulnerable friends or relatives. Many will be working from home in less than ideal conditions, with family and other distractions, including worrying about their own financial or career futures. And even those least affected, there is still a general sense of unease and stress. All of these things hugely reduces our efficiency and ability to work effectively.
  2. Organisations – most companies and most NGOs are massively impacted by COVID-19. Many companies and NGOs may be worried that they won’t survive the crisis. Every organisation has had to prioritise to tackle immediate challenges which will often mean focussing away from the partnerships they’re involved in. They just don’t have the time or energy to engage right now. In some cases they are having to make major decisions such as completely pulling out of partnerships.
  3. The partnerships – it’s hard enough having everyone distracted but at the same time partnerships having to move to online working where communication can be so much harder, planning and brainstorming so much harder. In many cases, partnerships are simply mothballing – but what happens to the relationship that’s been built up?
  4. The outside world – in most cases partnerships simply can’t implement!
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The second challenge I would raise is:
Funding: There are two ends of the spectrum here – there is a funding crisis in the charity sector with most fundraising activities on hold. This is greatly impacting many NGOs and their ability to continue operations. Equally, many companies are having to reprioritise their spending and make cost savings, which is pressurising the budgets available for philanthropy. At the other end of the spectrum, a flood of money will be made available for those NGOs supporting the relief and recovery from Covid-19. Here, the challenge is very much how we can spend this money in the most meaningful and impactful way, quickly.

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My third challenge is:
Business continuity (sorry, I couldn’t think of a third ‘F’!): Many organisations in both the private and NGO sectors have been forced to furlough employees or even consider redundancies. Many others are simply not equipped for remote working. Both of these challenges are reducing capacity to maintain partnership operations and deliver activities. Many project activities themselves are also halted due to factors such as lockdown conditions, travel restrictions and school closures in many countries.

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A1: For context I think it’s worth recognising that while corporate/charity partnerships have no doubt an increasingly important role to play, most donations from companies usually average below £5000 and the NCVO estimates corporate contributions generate only about 3-4% of a charities income.

At the moment all we know from the NGO side is what they’re telling us. CAF’s polling of the sector has found a huge rise in service demand for charities who support vulnerable groups - at the same time fundraising which is sometimes half of a charities total income has ground to a halt. Over half of the charities we’ve spoken to say they will not be able to continue for 12 months without further support.

As our CEO said to the BBC yesterday, the news from Govt of £750m to the sector is really welcome, but ultimately that still leaves a huge funding chasm (possibly over £3bn) which responsible businesses will be looked at towards to help plug. For many businesses who are navigating an uncertain future themselves, that’s a tough ask.

A more practical challenge for both existing partnerships and those in the pipeline are how to deliver on commitments made - in some circumstances by contractual agreement - when they are no longer appropriate due to the crisis. Programmes for example planned for schools or for the Easter holidays have been cancelled. Partnerships now have to show flex and explore how projects can be repurposed to support the charities and their beneficiaries.

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A1.1 CHALLENGES: COVID-19, is impacting all of us. The situation is fast-moving and not only concerning and disruptive to our day to day lives, but something that will affect the world for months, and perhaps even years to come - disrupting livelihoods, communities and organisations. Within the current crisis, key challenges that are testing both our capacity to implement critical programming in fragile places and the
partnerships that underpin these programmes are instability, uncertainty and potential lack of flexibility.

For Mercy Corps, every country we operate within is facing unprecedented challenges as the pandemic sweeps through communities, exacerbating the obstacles already faced in the most fragile places – including access to basic healthcare services, water and sanitation, unemployment, conflict, migration, drought, flooding, high population density. If COVID-19 spreads within these communities with limited resources, the negative impact will be amplified.

The needs of the communities we serve have not changed, they have increased during this unpredictable and global crisis. Amid huge constraints, our teams are working out how we adjust our programmes to the evolving situation, we know that now is the time we need to be working out how we pull together and scale up our responses to help our global community stay resilient, mitigate the risks and come through this pandemic with the most minimal impact possible.

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Companies and NGOs are needing to shift their focus to address immediate needs resulting from COVID-19, including stress on organizational finances, protection of staff, and financial and health risks for their clients. For example, one of our grantees, Technoserve, has shifted from helping MSMEs grow to helping them survive, with a new focus on addressing financial distress, business model adaptation and how to deal with suppliers, customers and delivery methods.

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Yes, I agree Darian - alongside the spiralling demand for NGO action in response to the crisis, NGOs are facing all the business continuity and operational issues faced by companies. They have to manage social distancing and remote working, employee safety and need for time off, supply problems, and the impossibility of travel. Each of those issues may interact with service delivery for vulnerable groups in complex and unpredictable ways.

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Current immediate challenges from the perspective of companies like Bayer which research and produce medicines, seeds and crop protection products are ensuring that employees who carry out that work that can’t be done from home are safe and able to continue to be able to work and make sure medicines and inputs for farmers continue to be available.

Making sure that medicines and other therapies can be transported around in a challenging environment where movement of goods is hampered by restrictions is testing.

COVID-19 though now a global health issue will become a food and nutrition issue all hands need to be on deck to work together on to redirect efforts to the areas of immediate need.

For the medium to longer term, not losing focus on other areas that are really important, particularly in times of crisis, like access to family planning which will have impact in the near to longer term.

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I think a key challenge across both sides right now is the ability to manage short term impacts while keeping an eye of the bigger picture of why we are here. NGOs will be facing many challenges relating to operation and continuation of delivery of services while corporates are also in unchartered territory. Now is the time to for open relationships with existing partners to work together to move through this

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Totally agree. Every NGO is worried about funding. They have had to cancel income-earning events and fundraisers that are critical to their financial stability, and are worried about funders putting holds on new grants and/or reducing grant funding for non COVID-specific issues. Corporate foundations need to be mindful about balancing support for the massive new needs resulting from COVID-19 and making progress with the important work that was ongoing before the current crisis.

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Reneging on commitments or substantially reducing payment schedules as a result of companies seeing their charity partnerships as ‘nice to have’s’ and not essential to the survival of a business has negative consequences for an INGO’s reputation in country for example with government ministries who have expectations of project deliverables, be it education or WASH programmes.

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Are there existing agreed ways of working in the event of a crisis? If not, take the time to map out the risks to the partnership and possible mitigation methods. Where will the bottlenecks be and how can we preempt these? How can we speed up decision-making processes while ensuring that the voices of key stakeholders are heard? (How do we continue to apply feminist principles to our ways of working rather than making top-down decisions?)

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I think that’s exactly right, David. We should appreciate that BOTH NGOs and companies are suffering (with a few industry sector exceptions), and suffering in very similar ways. Can we really expect all but the most mission-critical partnerships to be able to run under these circumstances?

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A1.2 CHALLENGES: We know that the challenges we face as NGOs are mirrored by institutional partners, private sector partners and individual supporters;

We face challenges to our operations – office closures, keeping our teams safe, security, remote working, staff absence due to sickness or caring for family members, travel restrictions both domestically and internationally, availability of equipment and materials to run our programmes and operations - all these aspects are bringing challenges to implementation.

Maintaining financial stability is also a challenge for all as we face a loss of income, restricted cash flow and impending recession. For NGOs, fundraising is increasingly challenging – as the private sector, public sector and individuals are threatened with income losses, the ability to support NGOs diminishes. Fundraising events have been cancelled, income generating activities stifled. Many individuals are forced to consider withdrawing support, and some companies and foundations are needing to review their commitments to support NGOs or have limited capacity to increase their support during this turbulent moment in time.

As an NGO, we are heavily reliant on donor support, and how our partners respond will directly impact our ability to deliver our programmes. We are all working to pivot our approaches in order to respond to the crisis, and the situation is constantly evolving. At Mercy Corps we know that delivering cash, WaSH and supporting small businesses will be vital for recovery. To meet the urgent needs, we need pro-active and responsive partnerships and funding in order to save lives and livelihoods in communities.

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A few further thoughts on your point, Kate, about the funding crisis in the charity sector: unrestricted funding – the kind that covers NGOs’ core operating costs – may be under threat with individual private donations falling and fundraising events cancelled. Restricted funding – such as that tied to delivery of specific activities and results in the context of a corporate partnership – may be at risk where programme timelines and outcomes were defined in a context that no longer exists. Where a range of different kinds of donors are all under financial pressure, even a well-diversified income portfolio can suddenly present stark funding risks requiring harsh cuts in capacity, just as demand for the NGO’s work rises sharply.

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And even where overall funding is relatively secure, liquidity may be a pressing problem.

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Agree, Nicole. That’s also a great example. Plus this organization may need additional funding to be able to effectively take on this new focus during COVID-19.

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Totally agree, it’s key to recognise that cash is king. Many NGOs have lost vital income streams – e.g. shop closures, fundraising events, face to face fundraising etc. In the UK alone, charities will lose an estimated £4.3bn worth of funding as a result of the crisis

Let’s keep in mind that there are some private sectors that are seeing an unexpected surge in demand for their services and goods. They will see an upturn in their businesses and their profitability. Those industry sectors may have few or nascent relationships with NGOs. So expanding donor or partner pools beyond typical actors is worth considering.

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I’d fully concur with the need to have that conversation - preferably prior to any crisis, but in the end most won’t have foreseen such eventualities. But, no time like the present. One thing we need to ensure is that we give each other a break! We can’t expect either NGOs or Business to function as normal, meet original targets etc. We need to have the conversations where we are realistic about what is possible, consider the world others are living in, and collectively agree what is feasible and won’t overload individuals or organisations at such a sensitive time.

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