During Tragedies, What Nonprofits Can Do Best: Be Human

The devastation of Friday’s shooting in Connecticut has all of us reeling. For me, working on deadline for a number of projects this week has been a blessed escape. It’s not how I generally recommend dealing with one’s emotions, but I know that my escape is a luxury. For which I am deeply grateful.

Yet even while “escaping” into work, I’ve felt heartache, despair, anger – sometimes separately, sometimes all at once – walk right in and take over my head and heart as if the door to these emotions isn’t temporarily bolted shut.

These wayward feelings make concentrating a trial. But I’m actually thankful for them. Because they remind me that I’m human.

And this is what I want to share with you: if you work for a nonprofit, you have a real opportunity to be deeply connected with the work of being human. This might sound fanciful, but once you strip away all the layers of (necessary) structure and terminology and input-output formulas, at the core, your organization is probably trying to make us better people or the world better for us. Or both.

Does this seem reductive? Simplistic? Naïve?

Yes, if nonprofit work is reduced to a slogan, or empty mechanics without analysis or integrity.

But most nonprofit work is not that. When done thoughtfully and with humanity:

Arts organizations can evoke wonder
Animal shelters = joy, joy, joy
Human service organizations can spell hope and relief
Advocacy organizations can ignite righteous anger for justice and change
Even policy think tanks can spark inspiration.

So, when tragedies like last week’s shooting take place, remind yourself, your staff, your entire organization that as a nonprofit you have both a special cache and a special responsibility: being human.

Keep that thought central to your work – with how and when you solicit your end of year donations, with how you respond to requests for assistance, with how you navigate the added pressures and stresses. Be human.