Taking a Forward Stance: How Training and Transparency Helped Global Action Project Meet the Economic Crisis Head On
Planning for Change
In January 2009, after the Fall 2008 precipitous drop in the stock market and increasingly dire predictions for a constricting economy, it became clear that non-profits—especially smaller, arts organizations—would be hit hard by dramatic loses in philanthropic activities. At Global Action Project, we felt the jolt of anxiety rippling throughout the non-profit sector and understood that circumstances needed a swift, proactive response.
Our mission and core values charged us to do just that—and a new leadership structure, which we had recently implemented as a result of a new five-year planning process, allowed us to do so with full transparency.
For close to 20 years, Global Action Project (G.A.P.) has worked with young people to engage them in producing powerful media for change. In that time, youth have generated a library of videos, reached broad audiences, won awards and acclaim, and helped to effect social change through their leadership and artistry. G.A.P. supports youth most affected by injustice, young people who come from working-class communities across New York City and are typically youth of color, immigrants or refugees, and LGBTQ youth.
The young people we work with are already deeply affected by economic conditions, so it was no surprise that the economic downturn hit their communities especially hard. This compelled us to dive into a difficult financial planning process that would ensure our stability and longevity.
Though never tested on such a scale as this, our organization has essential structures in place, which, combined with some luck, proved essential to navigating the crisis:
- An long-time full-time development director on staff with tried and trusted systems for projected annual revenue—critical to forecasting the drop in funding
- a five-year strategic plan (2007-2012)
- a capacity-building grant from the Cricket Island Foundation for director-level staff coaching by leadership and organizational development consultant Sujin Lee. This resulted in the creation of a leadership team, charged with managing the implementation of G.A.P.’s strategic plan
- weekly staff meetings as a place to vet, discuss and plan
- an active finance committee on the board of directors to provide oversight and support (e.g., monitor cash flow, research credit and loan options)
- a series of transitions by long-time staff. While this was a clear loss regarding our capacity and institutional memory, in general, it enabled us—at a critical time—to shed positions in our budget without laying anyone off.
The economic climate challenged us across the organization. We had to make hard and painful decisions to balance our budget. Our mission and core values charged us with inviting our staff and board into the process—with full transparency—for the dual purpose of organizational well-being and, critically, to develop total buy-in on the difficult decisions.
We drew on lessons learned from an intensive strategic planning process (facilitated by Movement Strategy Center) that produced a five-year organizational plan along with structures intended to increased staff engagement in organizational decision-making. We gained experience problem-solving together and, now in this critical situation, we were ready to put our learning into practice. In particular, we referenced a decision-making technique called the “Forward Stance,” which asks staff members to face organizational challenges and change on the balls of their feet.
Working together as a development team, we (Meghan McDermott, executive director, Dare Dukes, development director, and Aleksei Wagner, office manager) drafted a series of budgets, which outlined best- and worst-case scenarios, with the intention of inviting the full staff to vet.
Anticipating painful cuts, we intended to ensure that organizational values guided the budgetary decision-making process and that every staff member could participate. During a time of crises, organizational health requires, we believe, transparency and collaboration.
Collaborative Planning and Transparency
Dare Dukes, G.A.P.’s development director, saw first how the crisis could impact the organization. His projections reflected giving trends and forecast a 30% drop in funding for the upcoming fiscal year. At that point, our organization had eleven full and three part-time staff members serving up to 100 young people and a FY09 (July 1-June 30) budget of $900,000. We had a small cushion of savings, but nothing that would sustain us for long.
We had to quickly explore drastic cuts to align income and expenses. Staff members needed information and time to digest the impact of a 30% drop in revenue so they could be responsibly involved in decision-making (a continuation of the collaborative work done to develop the strategic plan, as described above). Along with internal assessments, we searched for resources like the Non-Profit Finance Fund’s “Tools for Tough Times” and Recession Planning workshops. And we sought out public panels and gatherings to attend, as well as peers, colleagues and funders to engage in frank discussion, solicit suggestions, sketch a time line, and learn from the best practices of others.
The development team presented our draft budgets to the staff in a series of meetings. First, we set discussion in the context of the larger national financial landscape, explained our income projections, and talked about what it meant to take on ownership of the budget as a full staff for the first time, acknowledging that trying to do this in a time of crisis made it all the more challenging.
At subsequent weekly meetings, the staff members ran through the different budgets and their attendant programmatic scenarios one at a time, discussing what worked and didn’t about each one. They offered concrete ideas and identified red flags, while problem-solving and envisioning both program and staff possibilities. The development team and the leadership team listened to feedback while working to revise both the budgets and scenarios in light of the five-year strategic plan, and operationalize year three (FY10). We also started to scale back expenses in FY09 to save money. While the leadership team remained ultimately responsible for the final budget proposal, this inclusive practice fostered staff ownership.
For example in one scenario, we looked at salary cuts across the board with the understanding that we'd already be in agreement if and when we had to make them. In another case we agreed to defer rehiring for our distribution coordinator position, a role that for any media organization is crucial to maintaining visibility and presence. Also, rather than a flat cut across positions, the group approved a more equitable, graduated structure: highest paid positions took the highest cuts, and so on down the pay scale. The final budget of $625,000 (not without some gambles), which funded a staff of seven full-time and three part-time positions, was approved by the board of directors.
Although it was a painful and often demoralizing process, our newly acquired level of transparency created both a powerful sense of teamwork and the most efficient solution to our challenge. Together, we saw our financial reality and identified our response. This was possible because we took staff input very seriously and incorporated it into the subsequent documents by the development and leadership team. In this process, G.A.P. staff members could brainstorm freely, knowing where and how the ultimate decision would be made.
Using our strategic goals as the key element guiding our forward movement, we were able to generate a budget we could live with: one that enabled us to maintain all services and media arts programs for youth (even if decreased in frequency), carry out our mission, accept that specific objectives would have to be deferred, and ultimately push us to re-articulate what impacts we could have in a year of working to sustain and stabilize the organization.
Where We Are Now
It has been a year since we began this process. Although there are some positive signs, small non-profits like ours will continue to feel the strain of the financial crisis for sometime to come. We have begun a new planning process. With cash flow reports, projections, and strategic plan in hand, we are also looking to peers and colleagues to share ideas. We are initiating peer and funder dialogues, and investigating any resources that have matured with the learning curve of managing tough financial times.
While we recognize that G.A.P.’s approach is unique to our context and conditions, we hope that our experience may offer some solutions that resonate across the arts sector. We are not alone—many people and organizations are struggling to survive during these times.
In fact, as we hope our experience shows, our greatest resource can be each other. As the challenges mount, it is essential to stay engaged with each other, remaining in dialogue about how to navigate the challenges ahead. The NAMAC community has a vast amount of knowledge, ideas, and cultural capital--the creative means to envision news ways of working and being. So let’s communicate and find ways to build together.
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About us: Global Action Project is a New York City youth media arts organization with a social justice mission. We work with youth most affected by injustice to build the knowledge, tools, and relationship needed to create media for community power, cultural expression, and political change. To see recent work, please visit: www.youtube.com/
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Meghan McDermott is Global Action Project's executive director. Dare Dukes is Global Action Project's development director.
