Sustainability in the not-for-profit world has three meanings: financial, project/programme and the one most associated with the term – environmental sustainability.
When people in a non-profit are asked about the financial (self) sustainability of their organisation, this often pertains to what they are doing to generate (earn/make) money, rather than only relying on donations. It can also encompass the aim, achieved by very few, to have sufficient money in an endowment (long term savings/safe investment) earning enough to cover those pesky running costs that the average (CSI, trust and embassy) donor that prefers to fund projects, won’t cover. However, as few organisations have achieved the latter, financial sustainability is mainly focused on the percentage of the annual costs that are self-generated.
Project/programme sustainability entails having – where possible – a component of the activities that can ‘keep going’ after donor funded work has ceased. In most cases, these are conducted by volunteers, peer supporters or anyone enabled or trained to provide services or support. These are often invaluable life and practical skills imparted to local community members, learners, students and others to share. This is not always possible but should be considered when theories of change to address problems are developed. Non-profits’ responses to crises should not automatically default to requiring donor money.
Sustainability is usually deemed to focus on environmental concerns. And these remain as critical as ever, in fact more so as one climate change goal after another is missed. At minimum, all not-for-profit entities must have environmental polices – real, sincerely thought through ones – not just box-ticking quick AI-generated boiler plate documents that no-one reads or embraces.
Although each organisation’s environmental policy should reflect its own circumstances and projects, there are things that can be done simply and easily to reduce an NPO’s carbon footprint throughout its various departments. In many cases, beneficial habits had not occurred to anyone.
South Africans have lamented the implosion of the postal services. However, moving to emailing and file sharing has meant both saving paper and the resultant climate damage done by transporting tons of envelopes. Costs have been saved on postage too. But too many people presume that social media, email and other digital communications don’t harm the planet. In fact, few even consider this damage – and the damage is real and quantifiable.
An organisation’s carbon footprint goes way beyond travel. Northern countries, whose populations are not facing the day-to-day struggles of those in the developing South, have ever-tightening regulations around their goals to zero-carbon damage. In the UK, for instance, the Statement for Recommended Practice (SORP) requires non-profits with an annual income of £15 million and over to report on their climate-related risks and carbon metrics. Northern donors, particularly, those making major grants, too, are asking probing questions about damage to the planet, mitigating practices in place and goals within potential beneficiary organisations to reduce their carbon footprint.
Simply reducing printing or sending documents by courier does not cut it. The digital world is not automatically green. Every email sent contributes to carbon emissions. Each unopened email, unread attachment and unnecessarily large image, all amount to avoidable waste. Embracing active environmental sustainability, by everyone within an NPO, school, university and faith-based entity will not only improve the organisation’s standing but will also encourage people to do this in their own lives and, hopefully, share the message towards a sustainable planet.
Start by:
- Reducing travel and holding meetings online (it saves time too).
- Considering corporate gifts. No more plastic. (How many water bottles, keyrings and other branded gimmicks can people use?) No more soft toys – PLEASE.
- Reducing the size of emailed attachments. Rather compress images and include links to websites.
- Reducing the number of emails. Are they all needed?
- Tidying up mailing lists. No mailing should be considered ‘complete’ until each ‘unsubscribe’ has been honoured and each bounce addressed. Every unopened email is simply carbon waste.
- Considering whether mailings could be less frequent.
- Cleaning up cloud storage.
- Refusing donations by cryptocurrency. These both fly in the face of vital ‘know your donor’ and ‘anti-money laundering’ concerns as well as cause massive environmental harm. The quantity of electricity consumed via crypto mining each year exceeds the total used by the Philippines and Argentina combined.
Image Credit Nick Youngson CC BY-SA 3.0 Pix4free
