Consider: 

• How might the communities or populations you work with be impacted?  
• How will the communities’ or populations’ needs and available supports be affected, in the short or longer term?   
• What might that mean for the work your organization should focus on in the short or longer term? 

Potential actions: 

• Make a list of potential communications you may want to have ready to send if and when the time comes; for key communications, you could even write the first draft. 
• Reach out to key partner organizations to understand how they might be mobilizing to support those most impacted.

Consider: 

• How, if at all, might your organization’s longer-term strategy and goals need to shift given changing needs (e.g., increased demand for services) or shifting external environment? 
• If your organization engages in a mix of direct service and other efforts (e.g., technical assistance, advocacy), how much of your work (e.g., programs, services, activities) might need to significantly pivot? 
• If your organization engages in advocacy or other systems-change efforts: 
  • How might your battlefields (e.g., state, municipal, federal levels) or progress indicators have to shift (e.g., hold ground versus make gains)? 
  • How might narrative change efforts have to shift? 
  • How might the election outcome shift whom you collaborate or ally with to enable progress on divisive issues?  

Potential actions: 

• Remind yourself and your team of your organization’s vision, mission, values, long-term goals, and theory of change.
• Clarify or develop guiding principles to use in your decision making. 
• Create a portfolio of potential actions you might take, including both large shifts and smaller-scale, more flexible actions that can be tested, implemented, or reversed quickly.
• Focus on the most critical potential actions needed versus getting distracted or overwhelmed in trying to plan for everything.

Consider: 

• How might anticipated restrictions impact demand, ability to deliver quality programs/services, or location/modality of delivery? 
• How might anticipated restrictions impact the cost of delivering services? 

Potential actions: 

• Identify and review any existing resources that have outlined potential policy impacts of different election outcomes for your field.
• Reach out to peer organizations in your field to collaborate and understand the proactive or reactive actions they are considering under different election outcomes.

Consider: 

• How might the election result impact priorities, strategies, or other aspects of your partnerships? Or the broader stakeholder landscape? 
• To what extent are there actions you might take in solidarity with other organizations in your field or community? With whom?

Potential actions: 

• Reach out to key partners to discuss the potential impacts they are considering and whether coordinated action could be beneficial.
• Refresh any stakeholder/relationship mapping that is critical to your work.

Consider: 

• Based on the location or nature of your organization’s work, could the safety/security of your staff be in jeopardy? 
• To what extent is non-partisanship important to protecting your organization’s ability to be effective (e.g., advancing your mission, maintaining funding, talent, external relationships)? 

Potential actions: 

• Make sure your organization has emergency plans in place.  
• Ensure there are clear decision rights (e.g., RAPID) within the leadership team to enable rapid response.
• Determine what organizational policies might need to be in place (e.g., time off for staff volunteering, policies regarding staff participation in political protests, including in person or on social media).

Consider: 

• Who may be most impacted, and how might they be impacted? 
• To what extent could there be significantly diverging perspectives within your organization on election results? 
• How will your organization communicate given your values and constraints?
• Where are you willing to draw lines in the sand about your organization’s stances on issues? 
• What did you learn from managing through the aftermath of recent elections?  

Potential actions: 

• Create and have ready communications you may want to release; acknowledge the impact and offer support in these communications.
• Determine what norms, policies, and supports should be in place; test these options with staff members and other leaders. 
• Reassess timelines for non-essential work, as people may not be as productive if there is significant upheaval. 

Consider: 

• Based on the potential impacts you identified, are there particular leaders or staff within your organization who will be critical to engage in decision making about actions to take given the election results? 

Potential actions: 

• Reserve time for leadership to make decisions and support the organization if the election result has a significant impact on your organization.  
• Establish formal or informal organizational linking mechanisms, such as cross-functional teams, to make it easier for staff to coordinate efforts and share knowledge.

Consider: 

• How are your peer organizations, as well as organizations involved in policy/advocacy in this space, thinking about this? In what ways are they mobilizing?
• To what extent could the known risks to your public funding sources galvanize private funders to increase their support? Is there historical data on whether this happened when prior administrations took office, if there was a swing in federal or state funding priorities?

Potential actions: 

• Assess funding streams and identify the level and type of impact on your organization’s activities if government funding amounts change; as needed, clarify possible actions to take.
• Determine how you might position the organization to access philanthropic funding to replace federal or state funding that could be at risk.   

Consider: 

• When you look at your organization’s sources of philanthropic revenue, which are committed, fairly certain, or at risk?
• Are there any scenarios in which you anticipate a potential influx of philanthropic funding given the issue area you work in? How can you be prepared to quickly mobilize additional funds in service of your mission?  

Potential actions: 

• Stay close to your funders, communicate about what you’re seeing and how you plan to respond; ask for transparency if they expect major shifts in funding priorities or payout levels.
• Free up as much funding as possible for your highest-priority activities; consider renegotiating guidelines on restricted grants.
• Design for rapid deployment of resources if you anticipate a potential influx of philanthropic funding to ensure funding gets to areas of emergency need (e.g., clarify purpose, decision rights, mechanisms for regranting).

Consider: 

• How might demand for your programs/services be impacted by the election results? 
• How might ability/willingness to pay for programs/services shift? Are there opportunities to access third-party payers (e.g., philanthropy)? 

Potential actions: 

• Outline options for how your organization might pivot your offerings or approaches in the case of sharply increased or reduced demand and/or willingness to pay.