What's probably needed is a quick infusion of cash or immediate action to end the emergency. Once the flames are quenched, you can all get back to the drawing boards. Speak the truth. To establish trust, maintain credibility, and negotiate the ever-present power differential, we must take great pains to be honest from start to finish with our grantees. Change demands a champion.
Nonprofit life is endlessly busy, relentlessly harried.
Without an inside advocate, even the best opportunities for change will be set aside in favor of coping with the demands of daily operations. Building a nonprofit organization is a long, hard haul. Almost everybody underestimates the time and effort required to make substantive change. Patience, resilience, and fortitude should be our watchwords. We don't know enough yet.