Rowing A Boat in a Hurricane: Nonprofit Strategic Leadership During Community Crises

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically disrupted the communities served by nonprofit human service organizations while also throwing the organizations themselves into incredibly challenging conditions. This study examines how organizations’ and their leaders in particular responded and adapted to these crises, drawing from the insights of nonprofit executives interviewed in the spring of 2022. Society relies on nonprofit human service organizations to continue providing critical services in a crisis, even as the organizations themselves reel from the crisis. They must be able to withstand the stress of a crisis and rapidly adapt the services they provide to the community. Community crises are unpredictable events, but when they do arrive, strategic and adaptive leaders can turn them into transformational opportunities for the organization. Leaders must strategically assess, mitigate, and react to the danger of the crisis, using their mission as a compass for their response.