Pivot - Volunteers
You have worked hard to build a following of loyal volunteers. What do you do when a pandemic prevents these people from carrying out their work? You pivot. Have you thought about shifting their roles to a virtual setting?
What are your ideas for “Covid-conscious” volunteering?
You have worked hard to build a following of loyal volunteers. What do you do when a pandemic prevents these people from carrying out their work? You pivot. Have you thought about shifting their roles to a virtual setting?
How about entrusting volunteers to organize a virtual 5k race? Take part in a drive-by food drive? Or read to students via an online platform?
Click for a May 27 article in the Chronicle of Philanthropy that showcase how four nonprofits adapted their volunteer programs in the coronavirus era.
What are your ideas for “Covid-conscious” volunteering?
Pivot - Performing Arts Organizations
What do you do when a global pandemic triggers shelter in place orders and prevents gatherings of any size? You pivot. Nonprofits are resilient and performing arts groups are no different. This post contains just a few examples of creative groups showing their inventive sides in response to COVID-19.
Photo by Rob Laughter @roblaughter.
What do you do when a global pandemic triggers shelter in place orders and prevents gatherings of any size? You pivot. Your season may be canceled but thank goodness for the internet and the ability to stay connected with patrons and donors through virtual formats.
Here are a few examples of arts organizations that have done just that.
Click for a May 10 editorial piece in the Dallas Morning News by Emily Levin, principal harpist for the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. Emily wrote to her colleagues asking their interest in putting together a virtual orchestra performance. The rest, as they say, is history. YouTube link to Ravel’s Le Jardin Féerique (The Fairy Garden) performed by 23 members of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra.
Turtle Creek Chorale’s season was cut short due to the coronavirus but that didn’t stop the group from debuting “Why We Sing” in conjunction with the May 5 North Texas Giving Tuesday Now campaign. The video is a strong reminder of the beauty of Turtle Creek Chorale’s voices at a time when many folks are struggling to find their footing. YouTube link to “Why We Sing.”
Click for a May 27 feature in Arts & Seek on AT&TPAC@Home series that brings the arts to your house. Content is presented on the AT&TPAC@homeYouTube channel and includes free arts education programs for high schools and Disney Musical in Schools that teaches musical theater to elementary students. There are drawing and dance classes, conversations with artists, and behind the scenes looks at all that happens backstage during performances.
PLAY- PERVIEW is a live-streaming theatre initiative that presents one-time only, live-streamed shows and readings into people’s homes. Viewers purchase tickets to these Broadway, Off Broadway, and Off Off Broadway shows. Proceeds from the ticket sales are directed to arts organizations impacted by COVID-19.
These are but a few examples of performing arts groups that are showing their creative sides in new and inventive ways. What would you add?
Photo by Rob Laughter @roblaughter.
Pivot - Mommies in Need
What to do when shelter in place orders shuts down your ability to send nannies into homes to care for the young children of parents dealing with a health condition? You Pivot to virtual communities. Mommies in Need’s staff created content specific to children ages 3-6. The curriculum along with printed materials, activities, toys, etc are delivered to homes of qualifying families and Chromebooks or tablets are provided if needed. But the work didn’t stop there. To provide the parent with a bit of a break, one-on-one virtual sessions are scheduled with nannies and the child - all at no cost to families.
Mommies in Need is a relatively young organization formed to fit a specific niche - caring for the young children of parents diagnosed with an illness requiring ongoing medical treatment. Founded five years ago, the agency has provided over 20,000 hours of in-home care at no cost to families via nannies.
Enter the coronavirus pandemic. While shelter in place orders and social distancing are keeping many of us at home and making us think twice before entering businesses or restaurants one thing we can’t put on hold is caring for our own health. Mommies in Need’s Pivot, or response, is creating virtual communities.
Through these communities families receive printed materials and activities geared specifically for their young children ages 3 to 6. Plus, the agency schedules one-on-one virtual time with the children and a nanny to let parents have a bit of a break. Supplies, activities, toys, crafts, etc. are delivered to homes and a Chromebook or tablet is provided if needed - all at no cost to families. The virtual communities are open to families dealing with a health crisis along with families of first responders.
Virtual childcare - an example of innovation in programming.
Lakewood Advocate article on Mommies in Need and their pivot strategy in response to COVID-19.
Photo by Sara Torda @saratorda
Pivot - World Central Kitchen
World Central Kitchen was created to address hunger and poverty. For ten years the agency has been offering programs and responding to emergencies. Enter the global coronavirus pandemic. WCK quickly rolled out their model in New York and now across the country that puts restaurants back to business to feed people in need. #ChefsforAmerica
Launching my new series of Pivot posts is a shout out to World Central Kitchen founded 10 years ago by Chef José Andrés. Andrés and his wife, Patricia “envisioned an organization that would create smart solutions to hunger and poverty.” Over the years the organization has worked within impoverished countries to teach people to cook cleanly and safely including converting cooking from wood and charcoal to propane gas and installing water lines and sinks for washing hands and cookware.
WCK responds to emergencies ranging from hurricanes to wildfires and now a worldwide pandemic. Enter WCK’s response to COVID-19 - #ChefsforAmerica a national initiative to connect communities and people with freshly made meals. The effort feeds frontline workers, the elderly who are shuttered due to the pandemic, and children who are missing meals since schools are closed.
Today, around 250,000 fresh meals are served daily in cities across the U.S. utilizing safety protocols developed by WCK, with input from universities that follow CDC guidelines.
The magic of this response is that WCK is connecting people who need meals with restaurant workers and drivers who need jobs. WCK is putting restaurants back to work by paying them to prepare meals and paying drivers to deliver them.
Click here if you are a restaurant interested in joining this effort, to view a map of the cities where fresh meals are served, to learn more, or to donate.
Additionally, WCK has been working behind the scenes in Washington D.C. to share their model of putting restaurants back to business to feed people in need. Andrés alongside a group of bi-partisan senators and congressmen announced the FEED Act, which would allow states to tap into federal funding to enact a similar model in their own communities. Twitter link.
#ChefsforAmerica - an example of how together we can accomplish more.
Photo by Jesson Mata @jessonmata
2020's Word of the Year - Pivot
Nonprofits have always been resilient but the global pandemic is allowing them to showcase their creative and innovative sides in whole new ways. Over the next several weeks I am rolling out “Pivot” - a series of posts on organizations that I believe are taking innovation to new levels.
What do you think? Who would you showcase?
I don’t know about you, but I am seeing the resiliency of nonprofit organizations in full force. Agencies working on the front lines are seemingly pulling rabbits out of hats to meet the increased demand. And agencies not considered essential are taking the idea of “pivot” to new heights. Who knew that words and phrases such as virtual meetings, let’s Zoom, and how are you pivoting would become commonplace in a few short weeks?
Over the coming weeks I aim to highlight organizations that I believe are offering whole new meanings to the word pivot. These are groups that are not just pivoting their programs to the virtual space but are also reimagining their work. These are groups that are rethinking their industry, especially in the food and beverage and hospitality field, groups rolling out new videos, and people using technology to connect with each other and with their community.
What do you think? Who would you showcase?
Photo by niko photos @niko_photos
One Foundation's Response to COVID-19
Utilizing the super powers of foundations large and small.
The super powers of foundations small and large. An April 15 post on Exponent Philanthropy by Lynn Bentaleb, executive director of the Nancy Buck Ransom Foundation outlines how one foundation with one staff person quickly responded as the coronavirus pandemic was unfolding in the United States. She relies on a variety of resources as her guiding lights including her philanthropy mentors, Exponent Philanthropy, Vu Le and his takes on the nonprofit and funding communities, and the work of Trust Based Philanthropy.
As one of Lynn’s work mentors once said to her, “A crisis is a terrible thing to waste.” Let’s keep the story going about creative ways funders and nonprofits are responding to the COVID-19 crisis today and in the coming weeks, months, and years.