2020's Challenges=2021's Opportunities!

So, 2020 wasn’t that bad, was it? 

While COVID-19 chases us into the New Year, it is also worth acknowledging the good we carry into 2021.

Last year showed Americans are capable of thinking outside the box.  Travel gave way to Zooms.  Eating out became take out.  A little help with homework became full-time home schooling.  Vacations became staycations.  

Through it all, our families, clients, and the nonprofits they support were force-fed lessons on flexibility and adaptability, challenged to find new ways to accomplish old tasks.  If we hold on to anything from 2020, perhaps it should be this creative, can-do attitude.

Similarly, COVID created new grantmaking challenges last year and its lingering effects will create grantmaking opportunities in 2021.  Indeed, perhaps the most positive carryover from 2020 is a rare window created by COVID, through which leaders in government, business, and the nonprofit sector become open to new and innovative approaches.

For example, COVID has forced parents to rethink attitudes toward public education.  Frustrated with the inconsistent application of science (leaders shuttering schools based on the same data other leaders used to open them), parents began looking for private school options and innovating with learning pods.  In effect, COVID forced parents to take charge of their children’s education.  Going forward, this may prompt a new wave of interest in the school choice movement, thus new grantmaking strategies.

Similarly, critics cite the bureaucracy-induced time lag it takes the FDA to approve new drugs.  That the FDA approved a safe COVID vaccine in the same year research began (versus 10-15 years it typically takes) offers fresh hope that other innovations can emerge post-COVID – such as implementation of reciprocity agreements that allow U.S. citizens to use innovative drug therapies approved by FDA counterparts in other countries.

The philanthropic opportunities created by COVID, and government’s response to it, are endless.  As a boutique company, Hoplin Jackson works one-on-one with clients to identify and vet innovative approaches to grantmaking.  

While we join our clients, friends, and colleagues in bidding farewell to 2020, we are excited about the prospect of helping our clients take advantage of the rare window of grantmaking opportunities that lies ahead.