From Global Pandemic to Global Impact
Turning the Unexpected into Opportunity
Full transparency, I did not seek to become CEO of Set Free. So if you are looking for a foolproof, 10-step plan for leadership success, this is not that post. But through my rise to leadership and in the years since, I have learned how to look for opportunity amongst the unexpected, and that is what this post is about. But first I need to set the scene a bit.
I’m writing this as a recovering type-A, control freak. My husband might actually disagree a bit on the recovering part of that sentence, but I’m trying. My kids have helped tremendously with this effort because if you ever need a reminder that you are not fully in control, I cannot recommend having children enough. But despite the flexibility I have learned since becoming a mom, the past 18 months have taught me more and stretched me farther than I could have imagined.
So back up with me to December 31, 2019. New Years Eve. I love New Years Eve. I’m also the weird person who loves Sunday evenings, not necessarily Monday mornings, but definitely Sunday evenings. These are moments in time when the future seems full of potential, full of possibility. This particular New Years Eve, I’m about to come into my first full year as the leader of Set Free. And I’m coming out swinging.
I have a very ambitious 5-year strategic plan launching in January: The Set Free 2020 Vision. Not the most creative name I know, but we didn’t have to explain the concept to people which was a win unto itself. We simply outlined our goals, the funding it would take to get there, and the global impact we would make when we achieved it. We sent out mailers in January and continued to share our vision through February. Then came March of 2020, and I don’t need to tell you what happened then.
The world shut down. All in-person meetings were cancelled. Our big fundraising Gala was postponed and then moved fully virtual. Church presentations were put on hold, and it was all we could do to stay afloat as we also saw our ministry costs skyrocket due to global markets and supply chain issues.
So, what to do? I would love to sit here and tell you that I handled everything like a champ. But that would be a lie. There was a fair bit of early internal complaining.
“You’ve got to be kidding me! First year in, and I get a freaking global pandemic that shuts down the world. Whhhyyyyy?!?” (When things go bad, we have a tendency to make it about ourselves don’t we?)
“So needless to say, this is not exactly the ideal time to launch a new program.”
Once I got over my initial life’s-not-fair reaction, I started looking for opportunities in the midst of this crisis. Because everyone else was working from home or at least spending a lot more time there, my team was able to deepen relationships by reaching out on a human-to-human level. We learned of those whose businesses were hanging by a thread, those who had loved ones fighting for their lives in ICU beds, and those who were simply just struggling. We were all craving human interactions, and this broke down barriers to have honest conversations. We prayed with them, and they prayed for us. It was during one of these moments that, no exaggeration, changed the course of Set Free.
One aspect of the Set Free ministry is working to end child slavery, specifically in India. Over the past 7 years, we’ve rescued over 40,000 children from slavery. About 70% of these children were taken into slavery as payment for loans their family couldn’t repay. During the early days of Covid, we saw the number of these predatory loans spike in villages we serve. With average loan terms of 6-9 months, we were looking down the barrel of a big problem looming come fall. During conversations with donors and supporters, my team shared this concern, and we asked for prayer. At best, I was hoping for leniency from the lenders. I prayed that perhaps they would show mercy by lowering interest rates or giving longer repayment terms. Instead, I was given an idea for a brand-new program.
Let me pause here for a moment because at this point in our story, it’s late-April 2020. I am now 6-weeks into my new tenure as a default homeschool parent which is only reaffirming my truth that I did not miss my calling as a teacher. I’ve also recently impulse bought a trampoline to put in my backyard for my children. I told you at the beginning of this I am a recovering type-A, control freak. I do not impulse buy groceries. I impulse bought a trampoline! That’s where my mental state was during this time period. So needless to say, this is not exactly the ideal time to launch a new program. But it was the right time, and it was desperately needed.
So, I started talking through the idea of preventing child slavery in the first place. I talked with donors in the states and our partners in India. We tweaked the idea and came up with a program to repay a family’s loan directly to the lending agent and receive the paid-in-full paperwork so there is no chance they will later come back and take children as payment. The family then pays the loan amount back to us over a one-year period at 0% interest. That money is reinvested back into the program to pay off additional loans in other villages. If they are unable to pay in cash, families can pay us in equivalent value firewood or rice which we then use for the rescued children already in our care.
I realized we were venturing into the microlending space, so I sought the advice of other financial-centered nonprofits. I make enough mistakes of my own so I certainly didn’t need to repeat any they had already learned from, and they were so gracious with their time and expertise. My team and our partners worked out the details, and in July of 2020 we officially launched the Set Free Child Slavery Prevention Program. The results over the first year were astounding!
- 220 villages and 5,798 families served.
- 9,115 children prevented from entering slavery.
- 2,815 young women prevented from being sold into brothels.
And because of the way this program is structured, we are well on our way towards this becoming a self-funding initiative. It was also recognized by Fast Company as a World Changing Idea Finalist.
I don’t say all this to brag (although I am incredibly proud), but instead I share this because it easily could have never happened. I had a million reasons to say no. It wasn’t a good time personally to take on extra work. Our international partners also had the extra workload of trying to do ministry while navigating lockdowns and changing rules. The global economy was in a nosedive so taking on extra funding requirements didn’t seem wise. But at the end of the day, it was still the right time to do the right thing.
Through this all, I’ve learned that crisis is going to come. Hopefully it won’t come in the form of another global pandemic, but the unexpected will certainly happen. You’ll be faced with a choice of how to respond. Will you hold tight to your plans? (It’s definitely an option. I could have tried to white knuckle my way through my original 2020 Vision, and I would have failed.) Or will you hold just enough space to look for possibilities that arise out of the challenges? If you aim for the second, it might just change everything for the better.
