Defining Immediate Needs and Long-Term Change
How Direct Services and Systems Change Can Work Together
Creating a more just and equitable society requires addressing people’s most immediate needs and focusing on long-term change. This is not an “either/or” situation; one approach is not better than the other. This is a “both/and” situation. We cannot allow people to suffer when support can improve their lives right now. Nor can we focus solely on the immediate without addressing the root causes that allow the situation to occur in the first place. We need direct services and systems change to work together.
Learn more.
What are direct services and systems change?
Direct services
Direct service is a term used in the nonprofit sector to describe the hands-on work of supporting people in need. Direct services are distinguished from other types of nonprofit work such as advocacy or community organizing and from back-office activities such as administration and fundraising.
Direct service organizations can provide a lifeline to individuals and communities in need. They pick up where the government has failed to ensure citizen’s basic needs are met. They range from scrappy, shoestring budget organizations working to address a specific need in a particular community to large, one-stop-shop organizations that are able to holistically support individuals and communities with a range of services.
Direct services:
Respond to the immediate needs of specific individuals or communities in distress (think: food banks, domestic violence shelters).
Seek to alleviate inequalities and improve well-being (think: after-school programs, microfinance lenders).
Provide training and education (think: job skills, teen parenting classes).
Direct services are often band-aid solutions focused on short-term results that address the here and now, like keeping youth safe and engaged after school or helping someone find employment. These services are not meant to absolve governments, corporations, and other power-holders from their responsibility.
Which is where systems change comes in...
Systems change
Systems change is a buzzword in nonprofit and philanthropy spaces without a standard definition. Systems change seeks wide-scale, positive transformation in our institutions, policies, practices, and culture (aka the system), eliminating the need for a band-aid.
Systems change tries to reimagine the entire system in order to shift how the world works. It looks at what is causing distress, inequality, and barriers to well-being in the first place and tries to solve issues at their core. In practice, systems change includes policy and advocacy, strategic litigation, public education, movement building, and civic engagement. It is the long, hard work of shifting the hearts and minds of the general public in support of change and creating enough political will to make the change possible.
Organizations focused on systems change seek to understand root causes, acknowledge the complexity of social problems, and look for the interconnections between issues. For example, the fact that communities of color are more likely to be located near toxic water run-off or in low-air-quality areas is a racial justice, environmental justice, public health, corporate accountability, and city planning issue. A direct service organization treats the resulting health problem or organizes a clean-up, a systems change approach seeks to prevent toxic water and air pollution in the first place.
Systems change may take advantage of an inside/outside strategy. That is, some will work from within the power structure by trying to build credibility and become trusted advisors to power-holders. Insiders are often restricted in what they can do or say but can be successful in creating incremental change. Others work outside of the power structure to mobilize communities and build public support. They have more freedom to make radical demands or challenge the system but may not have the political clout to bring about change quickly. These strategies are not independent; they must be used together.
While some organizations engage in both direct services and system change work, many more do one or the other.
Solidarity not charity
Critiques of direct services
Critics accuse some direct services organizations of being part of — and perpetuating dependency on — the system. They contend that organizations reinforce patterns of power, oppression, and white supremacy by imposing eligibility criteria that make people prove they are in need, creating top-down approaches that do not view the people they serve as equal partners, and silencing staff — particularly staff of color — who challenge the status quo.
Critics believe that direct services organizations perpetuate their own existence and create dependence on their work versus working themselves out of a job (that they are part of the nonprofit industrial complex). Such critics might prefer to work under a mutual aid model.
Current mutual aid models pick up where the government and nonprofits have failed. Mutual aid is a decentralized, community-led (think: neighbors, friends, colleagues) effort to distribute resources and services outside of the system and free from bureaucracy. It is a form of self-organized volunteerism. Mutual aid was reinvigorated during the peak of the Covid crisis when neighbors banded together to share food, make and distribute PPE, provide childcare, and pay each other’s rent. Critics of mutual aid might say that people who are untrained could cause unintentional harm by not following best practices or that they don’t have the ability to reach the scale that more organized efforts have.
Critiques of systems change
Critics of systems change organizations argue that they are not adequately connected to — or partnered with — people with lived experience. We cannot change the system until communities most impacted by the issue have an equal voice in the policies and practices that shape their lives. Systems change requires shifting power from power-holders and building power among the powerless in order to create a more just and equitable system.
Direct services as a safety net for systems change
The truth is that nonprofits and social change organizations operate on a spectrum. Some organizations are committed to dismantling the patterns of oppression and white supremacy embedded within their own practices. These groups are often either led by the community they serve or work in true partnership with the community. They are more likely to be trusted by the community, understand the needs of those most impacted by the issue, and are able to reach people who fall through the cracks of — or are denied — government services. Other organizations continue to perpetuate a charity model. Most are somewhere in between.
Regardless of where they fall on the spectrum, direct service organizations help alleviate suffering by providing essentials such as health care, housing, job training, education, food, and so much more to the most vulnerable. When you are starving or unhoused it can be difficult to have the energy to get involved in grassroots, community-led efforts to change the system. Direct services help meet people’s immediate needs so that they can participate in the long-term work of systems change.
Funding barriers
Funding barriers for direct services
Many direct service organizations are unlikely to engage in systems change work because they feel it could jeopardize their funding. Organizations that engage in substantial lobbying activities are not eligible for nonprofit 501(c)(3) status (the status that makes them tax exempt and allows you to make a tax deductible donation). Basically, the government wanted to ensure that groups could not use government funding or tax benefits to lobby against it. Nonprofits can still engage in a broad range of advocacy activities, but it is confusing to determine what is allowable and what is not. It requires extensive tracking and paperwork to make sure that activities fall within the limits of allowable activity. As a result, many 501(c)(3) organizations decide not to do this type of work at all. (Learn more in our What Is a Nonprofit guide.)
Funding barriers for systems change
Systems change is a long and slow process. It takes prolonged effort for change to take root and produce positive outcomes. As a result, it’s hard to measure progress and impact or to prove that a strategy is working. However, most nonprofit funding is short-term. For example, most individuals make one-time donations (versus recurring donations) to a cause. Foundations and other institutional donors generally provide grant funding for one to two years and then require grantees to re-apply. Without a commitment to long-term funding, systems change will remain elusive.
How you can help
Donate
Make a giving plan that supports both approaches. No-strings-attached donations from individual donors like you help organizations to imagine bold solutions that challenge the status quo versus relying on grant funding from the government, foundations, and major donors that may only be used for specific purposes. Supporting systems change work may mean expanding your giving plan to include donations to organizations and groups without 501(c)(3) tax deductible status.
If you can afford to do so, set up recurring donations and help contribute to long-term change. Recurring donations give organizations better revenue forecasts and help them to plan for the future.
Learn more in our guides on Making the Most of Your Monetary Donations and How To Make a Giving Plan.
Volunteer
When most of us think about volunteering, we think about directly interacting with the people or cause we want to support. We want a tangible way to connect to the work we are doing and to see the impact it is having firsthand. If you are looking for a volunteer opportunity, consider how you might dedicate your time and talent to systems change as well as direct services. Learn more in our How To Volunteer guide.
Hold power-holders accountable
Laws and policies help to create systems change. Use the power of your voice and your vote to let your reps know how you want them to use policies, rules, and laws to make the system more fair and equitable. Contact your reps directly, organize with fellow members of your community, put public pressure on your reps to meet your demands, and hold them accountable when they don’t. Learn more in our Who Are My Reps and How To Contact Your Reps guides.
If you aren’t satisfied with your reps, consider running for office! One of the most impactful ways to create systems change in your community is to get involved in local politics. Learn how at Run for Something.
Learn how you can hold corporations accountable to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to committing to social change in our How To Harness Your Consumer Power For Good guide.
Reflect on your role
What systems are you a part of in your community? What can you do to challenge the status quo and help change the system to be more fair and equitable?
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Originally published August 10, 2021.
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