Siobhan

When the COVID-19 crisis hit The Good Foundation, threatening to shut it down, the situation initially seemed hopeless. But the importance of what we do as an organisation was more relevant than ever.

With swift thinking, we pivoted the standard operations to online delivery
During the first phase of the COVID-19 response, we had to focus on cash management and minimizing costs, risk management for health and safety to ensure the safety of staff, participants and the community – which meant shutting support office and also suspending all of our face to face classes. We also stood down all casual staff.

All remaining staff hours were reduced and with the assistance of the Job Keeper program, the whole organisation has turned its attention to improving systems and processes in readiness for a return to normal.
We were and continue to be focused our resources on building really strong sustainable programs going forward. We made the most of the opportunity of the pause in standard operations and now have a model that tackles scalability and sustainability from a dollar perspective.

What helped you overcome these challenges?

We’ve been honest and open with our funding partners, and have worked with them to improve cash flow during the crisis and beyond with a re-negotiated funding schedule to improve cash-flow for the organisation moving forward.

The support of The Board – Every step of the way they have backed my swift decision making, providing an excellent sounding board whenever needed.

The support of my Mentors – Being a NFP leader, having the guidance from experienced leaders has been truly valuable during this period, and has given me the confidence to drive the organisation in the direction needed.

The support of the TGF team – I realised the importance of being honest and open, keeping abreast of all the information, so that I could make the best-informed decision at the time. I’ve tried to include the team in on some of the decision-making process, actively seeking feedback from them, as they’re the ones that were living it in the moment.