Perspectives of Risk: Nonprofits During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented itself as a potent clash event that has threatened nearly every aspect of society, including that of the nonprofit sector. However, current academic literature on the subject of risks derived from the pandemic and their impact is relatively sparse at the time of this study's publication. Unlike many of the precious studies conducted on this topic, this study seeks to implement a qualitative methodology to analyze and release more detailed information on the pandemic impact. As a result, this research study provides one of the richest bodies of qualitative data to date on COVID-19, and targets an extremely niche field of nonprofit leaders that normally would be inaccessible to academic researchers. The prerogative of this research study was to investigate the impact of COVID-19 through a qualitative methodology targeting executives and high level managers within the nonprofit sector. Moreover, this study also sought to understand how leaders in the space perceived these risks, and if any opportunities were capitalized on during the pandemic. Through this methodology, this research study confirms the notion of COVID-19 as a clash event, and lays out its major acute implications for the nonprofit sector. Additionally, this research study has established the presence of deeply seated issues within the sector during COVID-19, namely poor organizational agility and sector wide participation in financial starvation cycles, and established them as the main causal factors for nonprofit difficulties during the pandemic. However, this study also revealed that the impact of COVID-19 was not all negative, and that as a result of COVID-19 an ongoing forced transformation is beginning to take place within the nonprofit sector. Thereby providing an opportunity to rectify some of the long standing criticisms including organizational agility and participation in fundamentally detrimental financial feedback loops epitomized in the nonprofit starvation cycle.