Tony-Tapia

Answering the nonprofit SOS at a time of increased civic need

A conversation with Tony Tapia, principal, Bridging Worlds Philanthropic Advisors
-

Nonprofits in America employ more then 10 percent of all workers, or about 12.4 million people. These organizations, like so many other businesses, are being hit hard by the current economic recession which started in February, just a month before we began shutting down the economy to stop the spread of COVID-19.

The global pandemic has fueled financial and employment uncertainty. More than 16 percent of nonprofits worldwide say they didn’t receive any new funding in May, according to the CAF America June 2020 Survey, leading two-thirds of them to say that they don’t know if they can survive beyond the next 12 months. 70 percent of their overhead, on average, go to salaries.

Nonprofits are still hiring, despite the economic challenges. Read more about working in the nonprofit are in this WorkingNation article.

This economic challenge comes just as the work many of these organizations do is needed most.   needed. In this episode of Work in Progress, we talk to Tony Tapia, a principal of Bridging Worlds Philanthropic Advisors, which consults with organizations and individuals on global philanthropy, corporate giving, Latino and aging issues, and many, many more issues. He is also an Encore Public Voices Fellow.

Nonprofits are Sending Out an SOS

Tapia calls this an “SOS” moment and urges philanthropies to continue to step in and answer the distress call. Tapia says the SOS, in this case, stands for survival, operational, and sustaining.

“There’s the most immediate need of survival—fast and immediate cash to nonprofits to survive the short term and keep their employees and the doors open and the services flowing. Beyond cash, a lot of organizations were not set up to be remote and suddenly they had to be remote. Operationally, nonprofits need not only equipment like laptops or other type of technology, but also kind of technical advice on how you do that,” he explains.

The third leg—sustainability—will need to be a combination of both cash and technical assistance to help the NGOs rescale and retool and move forward. Tapia says corporate funders could be of great help here. “There is a lot of knowledge and expertise within businesses that can help with some virtual volunteering to some of the nonprofits. They can give them advice on how to operationalize and sustain their nonprofit after we get through this crisis moment.”

Tapia is based in Denver and shares how one foundation—The Latino Community Foundation of Colorado—has been helping nonprofits using this SOS strategy. He also sits on the board of Borealis Philanthropy, which he calls a really good example of an intermediary organization that helps very large philanthropic organizations reach grassroots organizations.

You can listen to this Work in Progress episode here, or download and listen wherever you get your podcasts. Don’t forget to subscribe.

Episode 138: Tony Tapia, Bridging Worlds Philanthropic Advisors
Host: Ramona Schindelheim, Editor-in-Chief, WorkingNation
Producer: Larry Buhl
Executive Producers: Joan Lynch, Melissa Panzer, and Ramona Schindelheim
Music: Composed by Lee Rosevere and licensed under CC by 4.0.

You can check out all the other podcasts at this link: Work in Progress podcasts

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.