How Can You Help? 8 Ways You Can Step Up During COVID Crisis
You can help by donating directly or volunteering and donating your services.
During this unpredictable time of great personal and professional upheaval with threats to the health and economic security of millions, for those who can, it is a good time to step up and give back.
“During this unpredictable time of great personal and professional upheaval, if you can, it is a good time to step up and #GiveBack. #COVID19”
Particularly if you are in a position where you have not been wiped out or depleted by COVID-19 and its consequences, you can use your resources to help others.
True, you may not be able to create a global concert with Global Citizen and the World Health Organization benefit like Lady Gaga has done with “One World,” or donate $1 billion to help fight COVID-19 as Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey has done.
But many others are pitching in with what they have.
Medical students are volunteering to do non-emergency healthcare duties. Neighbors are organizing food drives for older neighbors, setting up meal shifts and running errands for those who are not mobile and perhaps not receiving services at this time of sheltering in place.
Startups are using their new normal to give back in ways from repurposing fleets of vans to giving away rental spaces. Check out the possibilities here for inspiration if you are an entrepreneur or have a small business in good shape to help others.
You may not have thought of the need to donate blood or books for book drives, or that nonprofits that rely on their annual in-person fundraisers have now had to cancel them. Here are many options for your donations.
But there is much you can do as an individual to help locally and globally. And it matters. Here are 10 ways you can help as everyone works to flatten the curve and lessen the catastrophic impact on lives around the world. Because this new work from home, mandatory shutdown may last a while longer.
“There is much you can do as an individual to help locally and globally. @Takeleadwomen has 10 ways you can help. #COVID19 #Kindness”
1. Press send. Charity Navgiator has large and smaller nonprofits where you can donate now, choosing what categories you want to benefit from your generosity, from medical supplies to educational resources. Research here from local to national to global possibilities for your donations. These are established and traditional outlets like the American Red Cross and Global Relief Fund, so you need not worry about fraud or if your money will go to good use.
2. Listen. This can be simply listening to a colleague who is struggling, someone you mentor, a family member or a friend. And it also means refraining from sharing until the other person has completely shared what is upsetting them. Sharing in words difficult emotions and feelings is helpful. According to the New York Times, “Research from U.C.L.A. suggests that putting your feelings into words — a process called “affect labeling” — can diminish the response of the amygdala when you encounter things that are upsetting. This is how, over time, you can become less stressed over something that bothers you. For example, if you got in a car accident, even being in a car immediately afterward could overwhelm you emotionally. But as you talk through your experience, put your feelings into words and process what happened, you can get back in the car without having the same emotional reaction.”
“#Listen. This can be simply listening to a colleague who is struggling, someone you mentor, a family member or a friend. #Support”
3. Work for free. If you are a public speaker, perhaps volunteer at a local organization to be a virtual speaker for a fundraiser for them. If you are an accountant, volunteer to help a friend or loved one with filing their taxes (now not due until July.) If you are an events organizer, contact a local business you frequent and see how you can help them put on a virtual event. If you are a career coach, offer your services for free to someone who is struggling right now with a layoff or cutback.
“Work for free. If you are a public speaker, perhaps #volunteer at a local organization to be a virtual speaker for a #fundraiser for them.”
4. Give away your goods. If you are an author, buy your books at cost from your publisher, and donate to a school, non-profit or other group that will be able to sell your book in exchange for a donation, and keep all the proceeds. If you are a retailer, see if you can donate goods you have on hand to hospitals that may need what you have in supply. If you are an artist, donate your work to local charities so they can auction your work online and keep the proceeds.
“Give away your goods. If you are a retailer, see if you can #donate goods you have on hand to hospitals that may need what you have in supply. #COVID19”
5. Offer a free webinar or online lecture to a high school or university. Contact your alma mater, whether that is high school, university, graduate school, law school or medical school, and ask if it would be helpful if you offered a free webinar to students that would be instructive about your discipline.
“Offer a free #webinar or #OnlineLecture to a high school or university. Contact your alma mater, and ask if it would be helpful. #EngageOnline”
6. Set up a mentoring program. Announce your services on social media or through a local networking organization in your field. Set aside one hour a week or more to mentor someone specifically who has been downsized or laid off. You can mentor by phone with Facetime, or on your laptop with Zoom, Skype or Google Hangout. Set up weekly check-ins for a month or six weeks, free of charge. If you can mentor more than one, do that.
“Set up a #mentoring program. Announce your services on social media or through a local #networking organization in your field.”
7. Give a master class on YouTube. No this is not the TED stage, but you can video yourself doing something useful and put it free of charge on YouTube. Can you show how to rework or update a resume? Can you offer interviewing tactics? If you have a hobby that you can demonstrate—such as knitting, quilting, or even calligraphy, do consider setting up your camera to shoot you explaining how to complete a project. This will all be free of course.
“Give a #MasterClass on @YouTube. If you have a #hobby that you can demonstrate, set up your camera and explain how to complete a project.”
8. Send a gift card or money to a place you would frequent. You are no longer going to the nail salon or having your hair cut by you favorite stylist, so perhaps send a gift card or donation in the amount that you normally would have spent that month. Have you stopped frequenting the dry cleaners? Send them a gift card or donation. Is there a boutique in your neighborhood that is closed? Of course shop online there, but also send a direct donation.
“Send a gift card or money to a place you would frequent. Have you stopped frequenting the dry cleaners? Send them a gift card or #donation. #Community”
The full impact of COVID-19 will not even be fully realized in the months and year to come. But right now it is possible for you to deliver on the talents and advantages you have, the resources that are within your reach, to make a difference.
“Right now you can deliver on the talents and advantages you have, the #resources that are within your reach, to make a difference. #WomenLeaders”
According to the Chicago Foundation For Women, “In the U.S., women disproportionately hold jobs in sectors where they are at a higher risk of exposure to the virus. Women comprise 90 percent of nurses, 92 percent of caregivers, two-thirds of those taking care of elderly family members, and 90 percent of those working in senior care facilities. In most cases, these jobs and their risks come with low wages, little to no paid family and sick leave, and lack of access to health care.”
CFW reports, “A report by the Institute for Women’s Policy Research shows dramatic job losses and sharp increases in unemployment for both women and men. However, women’s job losses outpace men in nearly every sector. What’s even more impactful, one in two of more than 30 million families in the U.S. with children under the age of 18 have a breadwinner mother, contributing at least 40 percent of their earnings to the household.”
Women reaching out to help other women is what leaders do. It is what Gloria Feldt, co-founder and president of Take The Lead, calls #SisterCourage.
“Women reaching out to help other women is what #leaders do. It is what @GloriaFeldt, co-founder and president of @Takeleadwomen, calls #SisterCourage. ”
Giving back comes back to you.
