The onset of the most prolific American public health crisis since the Spanish Flu of 1918 has had a domino effect across the nation. COVID-19 has changed our lives. During a quick trip to the grocery store, I noticed that the nail polish remover shelf was completely empty. I mentioned it to my daughter while waiting in line at the checkout; her explanation made sense. Nail salons are closed and people are removing and repainting nails at home. As I unpacked the groceries that afternoon, it dawned on me that there is essentially no area of life that’s been unaffected. Since then, I’ve been considering all the ways our purchases, our interactions, or behaviors are changing during this pandemic. We may never look at a roll of toilet paper or a tube of hand sanitizer the same again. Maybe we won’t complain about having to see the relatives at the next holiday dinner. Maybe we will. There is a comfort in thinking that we may appreciate the things we’ve recently given up for the sake of our health like after-work happy hours, family birthday parties, concerts and worship services.
But until we get to that point, we’re still in a place in which our reality changes daily, we’re uncertain and scared about the future, and we’re figuring out what the future might look like. In these tough times, we’d like to hear from you. There’s a lot of talk about how this situation is affecting hospitals, small businesses and professional sporting events but not nearly as much about how our nonprofits are doing. So, whether you are serving clients remotely or counting the days until you can get back to work, we invite you to share what’s been going on at your organization with all of us in the nonprofit community. Whether it’s good or bad, just sharing can help us all feel better connected and reinforce the idea that we’re all in this together.
We’ve listed some prompting questions below.
Have you canceled fundraising events? What will this impact?
Have you furloughed staff in effort to ensure your services are available once the outbreak is stabilized?
How has the situation affected those of you who rely on volunteers to deliver your services?
Has you seen an increase in donations because of COVID-19?
Have you been able to continue services because of a creative solution? How did arise?
What are you learning right now that might change the way you operate in the future?
Send me an email about what’s been going on at your organization. We’ll share some of the collective responses.
We’ll get through this together. – Arianne (and Angela too)
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