Statistics New Zealand recently highlighted data showing the monetary value of non-profit institutions at $12.1 billion in 2018.

According to Charities Services, there are more than 27,000 registered charities who employ around 130,000 staff and millions of hours are given in volunteer hours each week.

"Some not-for-profit entities will do better in the post-COVID-19 environment as it may put more focus on their area - for example, charities involved with food and mental health," Craig Fisher, an Auckland-based accountant and Chartered Member of the IOD, said.

But Felicity Caird, general manager of the Institute of Directors (IOD) Governance Leadership Centre says charities are doing social good work for passion or for purpose and often rely on donations, grants, fund-raising, volunteer support, and bequests to stay afloat.

"During economic uncertainty, cash flow can be severely compromised, and there is intense competition for limited resources. Governing includes making difficult judgment calls."

Some organisations will decide it is not sustainable to continue, but others might join forces with a similar organisation, or find innovative ways to deliver services or do things differently.

"One thing is for sure, and that is the old ways are unlikely to work in the new environment," said Steven Moe who works in corporate law providing advice to companies, not-for-profits and social enterprises.

"It is the organisations which are nimble and able to look for opportunities which will survive. Doing that will likely involve sailing in a new direction, and as Allen Curnow said, that may result in an expanded world with new possibilities."

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According to local bishops, the geographic and economic challenges in the Amazon make the Catholic mission in the region a very expensive one, but there aren't many monetary resources. In other words, the Amazonian Church currently faces a financial crisis.

Bishop Flávio Giovenale of the diocese of Cruzeiro do Sul in the State of Acre, explained that the Church in the Amazon had been financed by international agencies and religious congregations until the 1990s, when the dioceses had to become self-sustaining.

"Each diocese used to be managed by an international congregation, such as the Salesians and the Spiritans, which brought money from other countries. But in the 1990s the support Brazil received started to be redirected to poorer countries," the bishop said.

Since then, the Church in the Amazon region has relied mainly on its own parishioners and on scarce donations from other parts of Brazil.

"But outside the major urban areas of the Amazon, there isn't a healthy economy. People just don't have money to contribute," Giovenale told Crux.

Since the beginning of the preparatory works for the Oct. 6-27 Synod of Bishops, local bishops have been stressing that they want to move from "a Church that visits to a Church that remains."

The current "ministry of visits," Giovenale said, is one of the main reasons for the financial hardships in the region.

"The other day, I had to go to a small city called Eurinepé. I took a bus to Feijó [170 miles from Cruzeiro do Sul] and then a very small plane, because there are no roads there. For a visit of only a couple of days, I had to spend almost the equivalent of a monthly minimum wage in Brazil [around $240]," he explained.

If Giovenale's trip also required a boat - in the Amazon, the rivers are the main connectors between cities - the total cost could easily run $480.

"Most dioceses make a huge effort to pay their priests a salary equivalent to twice the minimum wage - and we rapidly spend a similar amount of money when traveling for just a few days," the bishop said.

Without the proper funding, it's been difficult to keep the local dioceses functioning, said Bishop Mário Antônio da Silva of the diocese of Roraima, who serves as the Vice-President of the Brazilian National Conference of Bishops. Continue reading

• Image: Today's Catholic