Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are three nonprofit organizations taking different avenues to help seniors while in quarantine during the COVID-19 pandemic. 

• Are there opportunities for your charitable giving to help seniors during this time? 

• Read more on how you can help isolated older adults during COVID-19.

The pandemic provides illustrative examples of how volunteers and philanthropy meet the challenges of our time. Consider, for example, the problem of how to help seniors in the COVID-19 crisis.

The Washington Post ran three stories showing different ways newly created nonprofits are helping seniors deal with the stresses caused by the coronavirus.

Consider the healthiest seniors, who still live in their own homes. In normal times they would not need help shopping. Many of these seniors are sheltering in place in their homes, since the more they step outside the more likely they are to catch the virus. How will these seniors get groceries—or prescriptions?

Teens Helping Seniors is filling the gap. As Teddy Amenabar reports, the organization was started in March, but already has affiliates in 14 states, and its first foreign chapter is being organized in Montreal.

Visit any retirement community and you’ll find plenty of activities to keep residents occupied. But with the pandemic forcing residents of these communities to stay in apartments or their homes, what can be done to provide residents with the connections severed by social distancing?

Radio Recliner provides one answer. It’s an online radio station whose DJs (Sassy Sara, Hattie With An Attitude, K Rock) are residents of retirement communities. It began with the communities run by Bridge Senior Living, but has since gone nationwide.

Another way to deal with seniors’ isolation comes from an effort in Alexandria, Virginia, where 28 students at St. Stephen’s and St. Agnes prep school are regularly calling residents of the nearby Goodwin House retirement community in what Washington Post reporter Tara Bahrampour calls “a sort of coronavirus-era pen-pal relationship.” The two organizations have long had an informal connection, with many parents, grandparents, and former teachers living in the retirement community. In addition, both organizations are connected to the Episcopal Church.

Read the full article about helping seniors during quarantine by Martin Morse Wooster at Philanthropy Daily.