First and foremost, we at 180 Degrees Consulting hope that you are all staying safe and healthy during these unpredictable times. We would also like to recognize and extend our gratitude to all frontline workers for their bravery and sacrifices every single day.
Although we are all in quarantine, there are nevertheless many ways that you can contribute to efforts combatting the coronavirus pandemic, such as donating to hospitals, nonprofits, and charities that are making a difference. As a social impact consultancy, we know that donations are essential for the continued operations of these organizations. Here are just a few of the many that you can support:
The World Health Organization (WHO) works worldwide to promote health, keep the world safe, and serve the vulnerable. They have started a COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, and donations received will go towards funding the activities of the Strategic Preparedness and Response Plan, which includes, but is not limited to:
Ensuring patients get the care they need
Buying and ship essential supplies such as masks, gloves and protective wear for frontline workers
Accelerating efforts to develop vaccines, tests and treatments
Doctors Without Borders' teams are responding to the coronavirus emergency on multiple fronts—caring for patients, offering health education and mental health support, and providing training for vital infection control measures in health facilities around the world. So far, teams are able to continue medical activities, but securing future supplies of key items—such as surgical masks, swabs, gloves, and chemicals used to diagnose COVID-19—is a matter of concern. There is also a risk of supply shortages due to a lack of production of generic drugs and difficulties to import essential drugs due to lockdowns, reduced production of basic products, exportation stops, or the repurposing and stocking of drugs and material for COVID-19. Learn more about their efforts and ways you can help here.
Project Angel Food cooks and delivers over 600,000 nutritious meals each year, free of charge, to the homes of men, women, and children affected by life-threatening illnesses. Their medically tailored meals and nutritional counseling services help chronically and terminally ill people throughout Los Angeles County who are too sick to shop or cook for themselves. Despite the pandemic, Project Angel Food is committed to keeping the doors open, volunteers and staff safe, ovens on, deliveries uninterrupted, and clients healthy and fed with nutritious medically tailored meals. Learn more about their COVID-19 response here.
For more than 40 years, Feeding America has responded to the needs of individuals struggling with food insecurity in this country. The Feeding America Network is 200 food banks and 60,000 food pantries and meal programs strong. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues, Feeding America is committed to serving communities and individuals facing hunger across America, wherever they are. They started a COVID-19 response fund, and every dollar raised will be used to get food and funds to local food banks across the U.S. Donate here.
UCLA Health has created two COVID-19 funds: the Patient Care and Healthcare Provider Protection fund and the Research and Education fund. The former will support patient and family care; provide frontline health care workers with PPE (personal protective equipment), meals, and basic necessities; and seed innovation through cross-campus collaborations that lead to advances in testing, treatment, and devices for COVID-19 and related health concerns. The latter will contribute to the exploration of the pathogenesis and transmission of the coronavirus family, development and scaling up of novel diagnostic tests and therapeutics, research to combat emerging infectious diseases, and infectious disease education for health care providers and the public.
For an convenient way to donate to charities, check out Charipay, co-founded by our President-Emeritus Kyler Gilbert! Charipay is the first charitable giving and tragic event centered donation platform that allows users to find and donate to causes and charities that they are passionate about. Charipay is going to launch a campaign to raise money to purchase PPE for hospitals. They are partnered with three California hospitals, including UCLA Health. To donate through their platform and to stay updated about their campaign, download Charipay here.
To end this post, we would like to emphasize that the organizations included in this list are by no means exhaustive, as there are countless more who are doing amazing things to make a difference. If you know of any other organizations, we would love to learn about them; leave them in the comments and we can include them in a future blog post!