Format: Article

Guest blog by Pratichi Shah, President & CEO, Flourish Talent Management Solutions.

Pratichi Shah currently serves on the BBB Wise Giving Alliance Board of Directors. She produced this advisory to provide assistance to charities dealing with the coronavirus outbreak.

Friends and Colleagues –

I know your inboxes have been utterly filled with Covid-19 and pandemic information.  While I am reluctant to add to the volume, I’ve received a number of inquiries along the lines of: “We took the immediate actions; how do we survive and thrive going forward?”  So with that thought in mind I wanted to offer the following thoughts and resources, as you build the (hopefully short to medium-term) new normal:

• Overcommunicate what is happening internally (operations, talent processes, emergency procedures, processes being developed) and externally (grantmaking, programs, constituency-facing work, partnerships, etc.) – doing a quick communication once a day is not overkill and builds connection.
• It’s ok to say you don’t know or that things are undecided, if that is the case – but ensure you share what/if things are in progress and/or when you expect to have decisions or status updates.
• If you are creating new internal policies or revising existing policies (i.e. leave, telecommuting, etc.) communicate whether it is temporary or ongoing; if temporary, consider implications and precedents for your regular policies after this period.
• To ensure people are free to take care of themselves and loved ones, you may want to consider allowing any sick or family care leave right now to be in addition to, or outside of your sick leave policy. Keep in mind that your sick leave policies may be affected by the passing of H.R. 6201: The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, which applies to all employers with fewer than 500 employees.
• If you have other policy or process decisions (internal or external), consider using Race Matters’ Racial Equity Impact Analysis to inform and assess your decision-making to ensure that your equity and inclusion focus continues to be centered during this time of rapid decision-making and fluidity.
• Remote Work and Possible Isolation:
• Since team members cannot see you as they might normally (e.g. in hallways, meetings, etc.), consider how to have visibility to your team via: multiple messages on Slack (or your platform of choice), emails, group texts, etc.  This is a great chance for leaders to be a calming and uniting presence – through consistency and visibility.
• For many, this is the first time they have had extended periods of telecommuting and being somewhat isolated – consider ways to keep connection. In addition to regular meetings, create watercooler opportunities by having ongoing stated informal drop-in times where people can virtually eat lunch or have coffee together. Or build a communication norm that beckons colleagues to gather if they are interested and available. (i.e. “Who’s around?” or “Break time”)
• Create rituals that acknowledge this time of virtual work, create connection, and reinforce the organization mission – things like start-of-day or end-of-day quick takes, topical discussions, mission-based story-telling, etc.
• Have book/show/movie/podcast groups in which people watch, listen, or read on their own and come together to discuss. Focus can be either work-related (as a form of professional development) or not (to provide a break). Ensure the chosen books/shows/movies choices come from team members.  And remember that some entertainment may seem too fraught (due to controversial or NSFW portions), so tread carefully and share any caveats needed.
• Consider having team members “buddy” up – so that everyone has someone with whom they check in – at least once a day or at beginning and end of day – especially for those in more isolating jobs
• Take time or set up time to touch base on the more every-day life aspects of being home – sharing recipes or cooking tips (for some, sustained everyday cooking is new), ways to stay healthy, exercise methods, parent tips, etc.
• Lean into coaching! It’s portable, requires no additional set-up (beyond a phone), and can be enriching for both coach and coachee. Think about coaching to sustain connection, discuss productivity during tough times, deepen remote management skills, and build leadership. Peer coaching, external coaches, mangers as coaches – all will work. If you need tips or thoughts to build your managers’ coaching skills, let me know.
• Host challenges or round robins around topics like moments of inspiration or innovation (lived, heard, or seen).
• Consider what support or subsidy team members might need to maintain their tech connection (esp. high speed and wireless) as this period gets longer, since everyone does not have the same access or financial capacities. Same goes for those that may live in food deserts – what support or subsidy do they need to maintain health while at home?
• Consider also what support those team members need that have physical challenges that may affect their ability to use video or audio equipment on an extended basis.
• Ensure managers ask employees about their experience to understand it, connect, and to shape situations going forward, including:
• Their current work set-up and if they need anything (if your organization might be able to meet the need)
• Their experience with remote work
• Challenges they are facing
• How meetings are working for them
• How connected they feel and what is/is not helping
• Level and quality of information flow
• Managers should share info collected with leaders and communicate back what the organization can and will do going forward, based on the feedback. Leaders and HR should collect this info and look for themes to shape short-term culture.
• Don’t let participation fall by the wayside – many of you have staff groups or committees to attend to culture, events, equity and inclusion, or other specific issues. Keep those groups involved and empower them to support the creation and sustenance of ongoing connection while remote. 
• As part of this very fluid time, also make clear which discussions and decisions may not be participative and why.
• Encourage self-care – integrated and balanced with a bigger picture focus.
• Direct focus onto the “us” and “we” in this crisis moment – in times of fear or crisis, we can all revert to thinking in terms of ourselves and  immediate communities. This moment is far more about “us” at a global, even species level. Happily this is something our sector is attuned to, but moments of crisis and fear can lead us in a different direction.  Remind colleagues (gently) who might be spiraling, to focus on the larger picture – of the moment, the world, and your work.
• Mindfulness works in times of stress and anxiety. Start meetings by breathing together to center towards each other, start a meditation practice (or group), look through pictures of nature, or engage in some breathwork.
• Lean into what we do best – share, help, think, support – these are the times that our sector is depended on and is extraordinary at rising to the occasion. We lead with compassion, solve problems, support communities, share solutions – and we will do it again, by leaning into the strengths of our people.

Some Curated Resources:

1. General:
   • Online courses related to the pandemic around health, safety, planning, etc. – free and short (less than 30 minutes)
   • Network for Good’s COVID-19 site
   • National Council of Nonprofits COVID-19 Resource Page
2. Stress and Anxiety:
   • Various ways of dealing with the anxiety stemming from COVID-19
   • “11 Tips for Staying Calm During the Time of the Coronavirus”  – by Gretchen Rubin
3. Mindfulness:
   • Corona virus sanity guide (from the folks at the Ten Percent Happier meditation app)
   • Mindfulness and EQ practices for Difficult Times (from Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute)
4. Working Remotely:
   • Tech companies offering free remote tools
   • Tips on running effective online meetings
   • Tips for parents working remotely (from the Poynter Institute)
5. Leadership in Crisis or Troubled Times:
   • Bridgespan article about Managing in Tough Times
   • Leading Your Organization during the Coronavirus crisis (HBR – item #5 is especially noteworthy)
6. HR Policies

• H.R. 6201: The Families First Coronavirus Response Act
• H.R. 6201 and Emergency FMLA
• Pandemic and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) issues
• Employer checklist around Coronavirus Issues

Be well and be safe – if you need anything, or feel that another communication like this might be helpful in the near future, please be in touch. Don’t worry about whether it’s under the auspices of formal consulting – my mission is supporting the sector and always will be.

In support and friendship –

Pratichi Shah

The majority of individuals visiting the Give.org website are seeking to access our standards-based evaluative reports on charities. While this helps accomplish our main mission in helping donors make informed giving decisions, from time-to-time we also receive complaints about charities. 

For nationally-soliciting charities, the most common type of complaint consists of individuals seeking to be removed from the organization’s mailing list of a charity.  At the regional level, complaints can address a wider range of subjects from problems about a charity thrift store purchase to concerns raised about a pet adopted from an animal shelter.  Whatever the cause, the usual procedure is to forward the complaint to the subject charity and ask that they respond to the individual with a copy to either BBB WGA (or the applicable BBB). 

To file a complaint about nationally-soliciting charities, individuals can complete the following form at Give.org http://give.org/charity-inquiry. Complaints about regionally soliciting charities can be initiated by completing the following form for BBBs: https://www.bbb.org/consumer-complaints/file-a-complaint/get-started 

One of the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability, Standard 20, calls for charities to promptly respond to and act on complaints brought to their attention by the BBB WGA and/or Better Business Bureaus. As a result if a charity does not respond to these concerns, the organization will not meet this standard.

While handling complaints about businesses has been one of the most well-known activities of BBBs, the volume of charity complaints has historically been relatively low since, in most cases, people are seeking information to help them make a donation decision, not to buy a product or service that could initiate a complaint. So, the absence of complaints in a charity’s file is, in some ways, a false-positive aspect of the charity. Just because no complaints have been filed about the charity, does not necessarily mean they are accountable or well managed. This distinction between businesses and charities is one feature that helped encourage the development of charity accountability standards to help assess organizations.

Video of the Week

As part of our Building Trust Video Series, we are pleased to provide a video featuring Teresa Gardner Tyson, Executive Director, St. Mary’s Health Wagon – also known as The Health Wagon –  (a BBB Accredited Charity) that provides mobile health services to medically under-served individuals in Southwest Virginia. Health Wagon provides acute and chronic disease management, lab services, immunizations, physical assessments, dental and eye clinics, medication and pharmacy assistance, referrals, and community health fairs. The organization also states that it provides clinical, educational, and other specialty services to patients via telemedicine technologies.

Recent Reports

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

• Every Child Ministries
• Make-A-Wish International
• National Space Society

Finally, remember to let us know by going to www.give.org/charity-inquiry if you are  interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO  
BBB Wise Giving Alliance

May is National Mental Health Awareness Month. This is a cause that has received increased attention in recent years due to a variety of influences, including but not limited to, recognition of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) among veterans and military service members and the rates of suicide among youth. It is unfortunate that some who suffer from mental illness are reluctant to seek treatment. A number of organizations have worked to help increase awareness of mental health issues and have made strides in changing public attitudes.

The following three mental health organizations are BBB Accredited Charities (i.e., organizations that meet the 20 BBB Standards for Charity Accountability):

Brain & Behavior Research Foundation (aka NARSAD) operates a grant program that funds scientific research into the causes, treatments, cures and prevention of chronic and severe mental illnesses including depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, autism, bipolar disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mental Health America works to promote mental health as a part of overall wellness. Mental wellness includes prevention services, early identification and intervention, and integrated care services through advocacy, education, and research. The organization states that it collaborates with its 169 affiliates, supporters, and policymakers to advance federal legislation, regulations, and agency activities that promote its policy statements.

NAMI seeks to build better lives for Americans affected by mental illness through advocacy, awareness, education, and support. The organization’s trained volunteers oversee free peer-led education programs, skills training, and support sessions to community members.

In addition to the above groups there are others engaged in addressing mental health issues including a variety of veterans and military service organizations. While BBB Wise Giving Alliance encourages donors to seek out charities that meet the BBB Charity Standards, it does not recommend any specific charity addressing mental illness. Contributors might consider, among other things, the type of program service(s) the organization supports (such as education, treatment, and/or research) and what population is being served by these activities.

Video of the Week

As part of our Building Trust Video Series, we are pleased to provide a video featuring Mary Gilberti, J.D.,  Executive Director of  NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness (a  BBB Accredited Charity). Mary provides a brief overview of the NAMI activities and explains what they do to help strengthen donor trust.

Recent Reports

We are always working with charities to publish or update reports for donors. Visit Give.org or local BBBs to check out any charity before giving. Our recently evaluated charities include:

• Humane Society of the United States
• National Council on Aging
• Partners of the Americas

Finally, remember to let us know by going to www.give.org/charity-inquiry if you are  interested in seeing a report on a charity not on the list and we will do our best to produce one.

H. Art Taylor, President & CEO
BBB Wise Giving Alliance