You’re about to launch a fundraising campaign after months of planning.
Then, breaking news: Congress advances legislation that threatens a key issue your organization works on.
Do you pause?
Let the campaign fly?
The most resilient organizations are building a culture that enables them to pivot with purpose, even during intense news cycles.
What to consider
Don't let the calendar hold you back: Change course and move content as needed.
Streamline onerous approval chains: Build in contingencies (and trust!) to cut down on approvals.
Don't worry about annoying supporters: Chances are, they care deeply about the stakes.
Prepare for the worst, hope for the best: Expect change and prepare for it. The news cycle doesn't care about your calendar
Responsiveness begins with unlearning the instinct to stick to the calendar no matter what. Careful planning serves a purpose, but when a major news story breaks, it can hold a team back.
The ability to swap in timely content or send a message that wasn't on the schedule is key to harnessing a big moment.
Don't get bogged down by approval chains
Approval bloat is real. It's not unusual for content to pass through a dozen people.
But teams that move fastest pre-negotiate a streamlined sign-off process or designate trusted point people to give the green light in urgent situations.
Supporters want to hear from you
Many teams are weighed down by what didn't work five years ago, or more frequently, by the fear of “annoying” supporters.
But context changes.
Be curious, take risks with earnest rapid response messaging, and relearn what your audience responds to in the current moment.
Prepare for the unexpected
Pre-write alternate messages, reuse design assets across campaigns, and know in advance what content is safe to move forward quickly.
Not sure how a Supreme Court decision will fall?
Consider drafting talking points, fundraising appeals, and social media content for all possible outcomes.
Real pivots that paid off
When the Peninsula Open Space Trust had to pull its entire Giving Tuesday campaign just three weeks before launch due to construction delays on a featured project, they swapped in the story of an exciting new project, reworking previously approved content and design assets.
They also moved quickly to create a smaller approval chain to sign off on changes.
The pivot didn't just save the campaign; it helped them raise over $100,000 more than the previous Giving Tuesday.
At Free Press, a media advocacy organization, the team replaced an end-of-month fundraising series with a petition on public media amid the Trump administration's latest attacks on NPR and PBS—an issue they knew would activate their audience.
It became one of their top-performing campaigns of the year, both in actions generated and donations from the post-action upsell.
Even better? The team could adapt the scrapped end-of-month fundraising series for the following month.
It all comes down to trust
So, what really makes these pivots possible? Trust.
Teams that move quickly tend to have each other's backs. Everyone's on the same page and in the loop enough to recognize the moment and ask, "Hey, do we need to shift gears?"
In a world where everything can change overnight, the ability to move fast and with purpose isn't a bonus. It's the job.
The best time to prepare for a pivot is before you need one. And when it's time to switch things up, don't freeze. Just move.