Resilience – surviving and thriving in times of uncertainty

May 2020

In the current climate, many charitable organisations have had to make an extremely difficult decision; serve their beneficiaries, or ensure their own survival. They have needed to consider whether to continue working at full capacity, using all of the resources they have available with the knowledge that they may not be able to survive in the future, or furlough their much-needed staff to exist beyond the Covid-19 crisis.

The charitable sector will change as a result of this crisis, there is no question about that. But the many organisations working through it will still be needed, even more, on the other side. The most vulnerable in our community are supported by these organisations, the same people that often fall through the cracks of government support – the elderly, the disabled, the abused, the homeless, refugees and many others.

At Link UP London we aim to help charitable organisations to thrive into the future. Being able to sustain operations and adapt to change is the only way the sector will survive. Resilience is necessary now more than ever and we’ve asked ourselves what it means to us.

This is what we’ve thought:

Resilience means being able to quickly adapt services and programmes to ensure that support is reaching those who need it most. It’s vital to see the need for change as both a challenge to overcome and an opportunity for the future. Resilience requires adaptability!

Resilience means reflecting on an organisation’s true purpose and repositioning to pursue a mission in the current circumstances and beyond. Organisations need to be able to handle change, manage risk and have staff and volunteers who are committed and connected to them. Resilience requires clear and compassionate leadership!

Resilience means organisations solving problems and learning from mistakes and failures as crucial to success. Ensuring the right questions are being asked to get you true answers is key. Resilience requires continual improvement!

Resilience means building strong partnerships and networks with others who are working toward the same purpose. Working together always produces better results than working alone. These other organisations will be the ones who understand your value the most and, when crisis hits, will work with you to overcome it. Resilience requires collaboration!

Resilience means ensuring that you have a diverse financial model with funding coming from multiple sources and sound links to the community. If the community understands your value, they will not want you to fail and will look for ways to support you when most needed. Resilience requires financial agility!

Link UP London has an impressive array of skilled volunteers who are ready to support and build your resilience! This support can be provided through Flash Support including coaching for leaders, problem solving and next step planning or on short-term, structured projects.

We’ve started to use some of these amazing people ourselves to build our resilience for the future and look forward to hearing from others who could benefit from their knowledge, expertise and skills.