It says it right up front on our website, “Yes we know a lot, but we don’t know everything.” In the last few weeks, we’ve seen and read a lot from leaders in the nonprofit sector who also know a lot. We thought we’d take a minute to share some of these blogs in hopes that it helps you process this moment, think about our collective needs and resources differently, and maybe even bring you a few new ideas or solutions. 

Read on:

• “Board Members, What You Can Do Right Now,” by Andy Robinson. Andy and his book-blog-business, Train Your Board (and everyone else) to Raise Money is on each of our bookshelves. He’s a must read.

• “What Nonprofit Board Members Should Be Doing Right Now to Address the COVID-19 Situation,” by Joy Folkedal and Lindsay Tallman on BoardSource.

• “Now is the Time for Philanthropy to Give More, Not Less,” by Aaron Dorfman and Ellen Dorsey, in the Chronicle of Philanthropy. Fun fact to lighten the mood, Caitlin worked for Aaron at the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy during graduate school. 

• “Foundations: Use Your Balance Sheet to Help,” by FSG Co-Founder, Mark Kramer. The power of foundations and the assets they wield could be leveraged for bridge loans; will they rise to the occasion is the question. 

• “Time to Put Up and Spend Down,” by one of our personal mentors and faves, Al Cantor. Never one to be shy in his questioning of the endowment aura, here, Al joins others (Dorfman and Dorsey; Vu Le) in the push for foundations to up their giving this year rather than hold it for a future crisis. This is the crisis. 

• “Covid-19 could mean extinction for many charities,” John MacIntosh of SeaChange Capital, for CNN Opinion. We don’t love an alarmist, clickbait headline, but this piece gives a solid primer on some of the players in this sector and the possible impacts to come.

• And last but not least, if all of these have let you feeling…overwhelmed(?), “Things are not normal. It’s okay to not be okay,” by Vu Le, at Nonprofit AF. Vu captures what we are reminding ourselves on daily basis – none of us know how to endure a pandemic like this, let alone one where we’re working from home, or not working, full time with our children or partners or alone, wondering about our loved ones and what all this will mean. It’s okay to not be okay with all this. Just be kind to yourself. 

Leave and comment and let us know what you have been reading, what’s helping, and what ideas you would share. Our new mantra is “crisis breeds creativity” – so let’s hear it and get creative on how we can survive this together.