"Office" Culture in the Time of COVID - A Message from Amy LittleThis is hard for me to believe, but it’s been more than five months since we closed the Idaho Nonprofit Center office and started working remotely. At the time when we packed up all our things, none of us could envision that we would still be working from home all these many months later.
We had such high hopes in June that we could execute Stage 4 of our internal return to work policy, but as we all know COVID case counts continued to climb and here in Ada County we’ve been rolled back to Stage 3 with additional restrictions (that look a lot more like Stage 2). It became clear to our leadership team that things are not going to change anytime soon. One of the things I do as intentionally as I can is to loop in senior staff on bigger picture decisions for the Center, and this seemed like an opportunity to consult with my newly promoted team leaders.
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Thank you to our 700 nonprofit members and over 70 business affiliates. While we know many of you personally, we want to extend our appreciation to each organization and individual that interacts with the Idaho Nonprofit Center.
Educating, advocating, and collaborating to support a stronger sector would not be possible without your partnership in return. Yes, our members get a large list of special benefits, but the partnerships are a valued and crucial aspect to the work we do across the state. Membership is a core component of the Idaho Nonprofit Center and it truly allows us to fulfill our mission to the best of our ability. Partners like you allow the staff to work in non-program areas such as our advocacy efforts, helpline support, collecting research and data on behalf of the sector, connecting resources, and much more. We know that we have all faced hard times in 2020 so thank you for choosing membership and contributing to our state’s nonprofit community. Please let us know if there are any other resources you would like to see.  This is hard for me to believe, but it’s been more than five months since we closed the Idaho Nonprofit Center office and started working remotely. At the time when we packed up all our things, none of us could envision that we would still be working from home all these many months later.
We had such high hopes in June that we could execute Stage 4 of our internal return to work policy, but as we all know COVID case counts continued to climb and here in Ada County we’ve been rolled back to Stage 3 with additional restrictions (that look a lot more like Stage 2). It became clear to our leadership team that things are not going to change anytime soon. One of the things I do as intentionally as I can is to loop in senior staff on bigger picture decisions for the Center, and this seemed like an opportunity to consult with my newly promoted team leaders.  Our mission at the Idaho Nonprofit Center is to educate, advocate, and collaborate in support of stronger nonprofits. Nonprofits are seeing (daily) an increase in demands for services with a decrease in financial resources to support their mission related work as a result of the impacts of COVID-19.
Social distancing, hand washing, and mask wearing are proven methods to reduce the spread of the coronavirus. Multiple studies and research projects show that if communities follow these methods, there is a correlative reduction in the spread. Please join us in the Governor’s existing Mask Up Idaho campaign and share our messaging within your networks. We ask the nonprofit community, their employees, volunteers, clients, and board members to support these efforts through a three pronged approach:
How will School Closures or Virtual Learning Impact your Organization?Throughout Idaho, school districts are in the process of deciding what the year will look like for both students and parents. All of these changes and uncertainties can create anxiety for your employees, wondering how they can manage childcare and/or support at home online learning if they are still having to work. We wanted to make sure that we share the changes to the FMLA specifically from the Families First Coronavirus Response Act as it pertains to employee leave related to COVID impacts. The Department of Labor requires certain employers to provide employees with paid sick leave or expanded family and medical leave. Specifically if the employee is ill, has to care for an ill family member, and/or they are unable to work due to school or childcare closures. Click here to read more Nonprofits with fewer than 50 employees may qualify for an exemption from the requirement to provide leave due to school closings or child care unavailability if the leave requirements would jeopardize the viability of the business as a growing concern. Both full time and part time employees are eligible for certain kinds of leave so please be sure you review your policies and ask questions if you are unsure. You may review our internal policy if it’s helpful to you. You can also ask your payroll processor, back office support, or another HR professional in the sector for further guidance if you don’t feel you have the expertise to implement this in your own organization. We strongly encourage our nonprofit friends to dust off your work from home policies (if you’ve returned to the office), review the feasibility of certain employees taking on tasks that can be done from home, and allow for greater flexibility in working hours for employees who need to help care-take or have children at home. If you don’t already have a membership to TechSoup, consider one today. TechSoup is a great resource for nonprofits to purchase technology infrastructure at nonprofit rates to better enable a variety of work situations, including remote. HEROES vs. HEALS ActsYou may have heard about two competing pieces of legislation that have both been introduced at the federal level recently. The first is called the HEROES Act (Health and Economic Recovery Omnibus Emergency Solutions Act) introduced by the U.S. House of Representatives. The second is called the HEALS ACt (Health, Economic Assistance, Liability and Schools Act) that has been introduced by the U.S. Senate. There are both similarities and vast differences in these bills and thankfully our friends at the National Council for Nonprofits have laid them both out in a side by side comparison for better visual understanding of what each is trying to accomplish. Recently we signed on to a community letter that laid out some collective legislative priorities for the more than 4,000 organizations from all 50 states. Those priorities are:
Join us in contacting Congressman Fulcher and Congressman Simpson and asking them to sign on to the new Moulton/Fitzpatrick letter to House leaders calling for inclusion of nonprofit provisions in the next COVID relief package. You can use the following message and social media prompts:
Mask or no Mask: Where do you Stand?The Idaho Nonprofit Center wanted to conduct a short pulse pull to see where you stand on mask wearing. Please take just 30 seconds (at most) to complete this 2 question poll. We appreciate your time and dedication to Idaho! Partial Unemployment Insurance (UI) Act Enacted*Congress passed and the President signed the Protecting Nonprofits from Catastrophic Cash Flow Strain Act (S.4209) yesterday afternoon. The bill overrides the Labor Department requirement that self-insured nonprofits must pay 100% of benefits costs upfront and get reimbursed by their states later. The bill is called a partial UI fix because it only corrects the misinterpretation of the CARES Act by the Department of Labor. “The message to reimbursing employers from this new law is ‘Don’t panic, partial relief has arrived,’” said Tim Delaney, President & CEO of the National Council of Nonprofits. “The new law is just a partial fix to a serious problem, however, because self-insuring nonprofits and governments still must pay 50 percent of unemployment bills. We urge Congress to fix this second half of the problem this month.” *content provided by Montana Nonprofit Association and the National Council for Nonprofits Level Up at Conference Join over 300 nonprofit professionals - from board members to CEOs and everyone in between - at the premier event for Idaho nonprofit leaders as they address critical issues and opportunities in the nonprofit sector.
During the conference, all attendees will have the opportunity to fully participate in their chosen breakout sessions through microphone enabled live Q and As, polls, and text chat features. Also, for those breakout sessions you do not attend live, you will be able to view the recordings after the event has ended. 20+ different topics for just $75! Amy Little (she/her), CEO/President Several weeks ago the Idaho Nonprofit Center issued a very clear statement about our commitment to learning and leading through diversity, equity, and inclusion work. Originally, it focused on addressing systemic racism, but at our core we recognize the need to dive deeper and address other injustices.
I am happy to report that we’ve made a significant amount of progress on our commitments and are adding to our list. We refuse to get lost in bandwagon enthusiasm and waning action. Silence is also a form of violence. |
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