Giving Compass' Take:

• Nonprofit organizations, funders, and governments are adapting in order to best serve the needs of their communities during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic.

• How are organizations in your areas adapting? In what ways can donors be more flexible during this time? 

• Here are some COVID-19 resources for giving circles.

These are truly unimaginable times. On a daily basis, humanity is challenged in ways most of us have never experienced before by a pandemic affecting more than 180 countries simultaneously; infecting more than one million people and shutting down the global economy in four weeks with a duration that is unknown. The impact affects everyone, everywhere with particular devastation to those most vulnerable across the globe. At a moment like this, it’s easy to fall into despair.

But there are also many signs of hope. There are, of course, the unprecedented efforts of those on the front line of care and those searching 24/7 to find a treatment and ultimately a vaccine. But there are also the actions of those who are rapidly pivoting their organizations to make a difference in the lives of others right now, in ways they had never envisioned just a month ago.

Within our (Draper Richards Kaplan Foundation, or DRK) portfolio of 165 organizations that we have funded over the years, we see these pivots in real time. A number of our enterprises have shifted instantly, not to weather the storm, but to adapt their business models, distribution channels, and even their own structure to respond to the ever-changing conditions on the ground.

We are seeing three different forms of this shift. We call them “pop-ups,” “pop-outs,” and “push-throughs.”

Read the full article about organizations adapting during coronavirus by Jim Bildner at Stanford Social Innovation Review.