Blog

Kate Bundle, CEO, Grandparents Raising Grandchildren

1. What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given recently?
To be discriminating about what you pursue, which I reframed as ‘don’t bark at every passing car!’ Keeping this in my mind, particularly in the early stages of lockdown, helped me be clear on my priorities as CEO and to navigate through the masses of information that came through thick and fast.

2. What’s been the most challenging part of the lockdown journey?
Safeguarding our funding. I made the decision to go into lockdown a week early which meant the staff were setup and ready to respond to the needs of our members when the country went into lockdown. Funding was then my major priority.

Connecting with our regular funders to keep them abreast of how we were managing and adapting our services, and discussing how they could support GRG through this next phase was a great example of partnership in action and a very gratifying process.

The other challenge was managing the often-conflicting demands of working and parenting from home. Homeschooling was a challenge and I have a new deep respect for teachers! The longer the lockdown went on, I became more aware of how important my own mental health and wellbeing was in order to continue to meet the demands of leadership.

3. What’s the smallest change that’s had the greatest impact?
Prior to lockdown we believed that as a grassroots organisation supporting people in challenging situations we needed to deliver our service on the ground, face-to-face. Lockdown has shown the limitations of this approach and we now see that by embracing technology we can not only increase our level of support but reach more people. Part of our initial response to lockdown was increasing our remote communication channels such as SMS text, which meant we could be more accessible remotely and responsive to client needs. We recently surveyed members and their positive feedback has endorsed the decision to keep these in place.

4. What’s been your biggest learning?
You can be supportive, responsive, build team and culture remotely. As an organisation with support groups and staff throughout the country, we stepped up our communication to great effect. We met with staff outside of Auckland more regularly thanks to Zoom which has made the team stronger. I’ve seen how adaptable people are and realised that we often limit ourselves with our own beliefs rather than trying something new.

5. What have you been surprised by?
How well our grandparent members managed during lockdown and the positive outcomes they experienced. In a recent survey, many said that it gave them the opportunity to spend time together and to bond as a family – slowing down without quite so many demands was a relief. Others now have improved technology skills and are more engaged with GRG as a result. Those that struggled didn’t have good access to the Internet or technology or were dealing with particularly challenging grandchildren with complex issues.

6. Strategically, what’s the biggest opportunity lockdown has created for your organisation?
Using technology to reach grandparents through a wider range of remote communication channels which I’ve mentioned. Secondly, collaboration with other organisations. Referring grandparents to other organisations that can meet their specific needs has always been a part of our service delivery model, however during lockdown this increased and has reinforced my belief that together we can make more of a difference. Foodbanks and other essential services were a critical part of our network and enabled us to care for our grandparents more successfully.

7. What are you most proud of?
The decision to go into lockdown a week earlier and my amazing team. Making the decision to go earlier meant we were prepared, both mentally and operationally, to respond to member need when the country locked down. My team were incredible and worked so hard to support our members.

8. Have you implemented any changes that you will keep post-lockdown?
Technology has become our new friend – our weekly Zoom team meetings and other platforms have been retained for the greater good. Our engagement with members and remote staff deepened over lockdown and we’ve adapted our communications programme in order to maintain this.

9. The future of the non-profit sector is ….?
Very challenging. The wage subsidy and mortgage holiday have provided an initial buffer so at this point it’s difficult to know where we are going to land and what this may mean in terms of the demand for our services. We do know that in times of recession family life is impacted as households are placed under financial pressure and that when parents aren’t coping, they look for ways to escape. In these situations grandparents often end up being the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff. Potentially, this would lead to an increase in demand for our services in a tighter funding climate. I am aware this scenario is one that will be shared by many in the sector.