Track: Operations Management

Abstract

The impact of COVID-19 on life around the world is shocking, and non-profits are not immune to the disruption.  Unsurprising consequences of the COVID-19 crisis for non-profit organisations (NPOs) are a drops in funding, staff and volunteers.  The funding outlook in many NPOs can only be described as ‘rough and scary’.  Even though the COVID-19 pandemic has brought many challenges some opportunities emerged.  Many leaders of NPOs lack strategies to build and maintain a financially sustainable organization to continue providing vital services.  Focusing on the NPO’s operations strategy, this single longitudinal case study explored strategies the NPO leaders used to maintain survivability for sustainability during a general economic downturn caused by COVID-19 pandemic.  Using observations and in-depth semi structured interviews, questionnaires and organisation’s records, this study has shown that for the NPO under study, working from home was feasible.  However, not all programs and services offered by the NPO could be digitalised.  The pandemic, therefore inspired the NPOs to be more agile, to pivot and approach issues innovatively.  It also challenged NPOs to look at their operations differently going forward.  While it has been difficult in many ways, it also has been positive in adapting their cultures to be more flexible and paperless.  Partnership is one aspect said to be worth exploring in order to keep staff by sharing employee’s time and cost of employment.  The study makes a contribution by revealing the complex sources that cause challenges for NPOs; stressing the changing nature of challenges during a pandemic; showing the importance of NPOs’ willingness to adapt; and conceptualising with organisational theories/views such as: process view of an NPO; organisational resilience and sustainability; performance and change management; resource dependency theory and resource based view.