This piece is shared as part of Pledge 1%’s #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, which highlights how Pledge 1% members and the business community are coming together as a force for good to combat COVID-19.
In these challenging times, Dash is here to continue connecting the world in real-time as a community through radio. While many are feeling the emptiness of isolation, Dash is curated by live people-not algorithms. We are proud of our 450+ live hosts and DJs across 80 premium stations; there is something for everyone to pass the time, ease the tension, feel connected, or bring back fond memories.
We understand current circumstances are difficult for many people financially, and with economic uncertainty ahead of us, we want to emphasize that a quality ad-free audio experience is still what we do best. Dash is 100% free to use and free of traditional ads, and will remain this way!
In direct response to the pandemic, the Dash team has partnered with Providence St. Joseph Health & Ergo to introduce the first 24/7 Live COVID-19 update station, providing facts and guidance direct from clinical experts on how to protect yourself and updates on the spread of the virus as this information becomes available. We have partnered with various charities, including LA Regional Food Bank and Recording Academy Musicares, to raise money for those in need during this crisis.
In these extraordinary times, Silicon Valley Bank is doing some things differently. But what’s unchanged, as the world fights COVID-19, is our more than 35-year commitment to support our clients, our employees, our business partners and our partners in philanthropy. We are helping our clients adapt to rapid change and we are emphasizing our values to guide SVB COVID-19 charitable activities. We strive to be helpful, relevant and timely and fortify innovation as our north star.
At the outset of the pandemic, we laid out a multipronged philanthropic strategy that builds on our relationships with trusted partners, recognizes that the immense needs would quickly scale, and leverages the power and engagement of our extensive network in centers of innovation across the globe.
SVB is targeting philanthropic efforts in three primary areas: health, shelter and food security, and small business relief. The bank has committed $5.5 million to COVID-19 charitable relief initiatives across the nine countries and 15 US states where the bank operates. This includes corporate contributions to global, national and regional charities, direct community-based giving and tripling our match for employees’ donations to relevant causes where they are located. In addition, SVB announced that it will contribute net Paycheck Protection Program loan origination fees it receives from the Small Business Administration to relief efforts.
Our philanthropic efforts are immensely rewarding, and we are only getting started. Thanks to our strong partners, including Pledge 1%, exceptional SVB global team and our proven leadership in the innovation sector, we are aiming to invest and contribute where the need is most acute.
Engaging Community and Global Support
The COVID-19-related donations, which are being augmented by a 3:1 employee match, are directed by our regional office leaders to address the most urgent local needs. For example, SVB contributions have gone to purchase personal protective equipment for healthcare workers, resupply food banks and provide short term help for low-income families. The SVB Foundation is partnering with employees who volunteer at non-profit organizations to support those groups most impacted by the pandemic at an accelerated pace.
SVB, in partnership with Founders Pledge, developed the COVID-19 Global Impact & Innovation Fund, which we seeded with a $1 million contribution. Our goal is to identify and consolidate into a single fund several high-impact organizations that are focused on activities to help slow COVID-19’s spread, provide immediate relief to those affected and get better prepared for future pandemics. The fund is accepting contributions from the general public.
Access to Innovation
SVB’s Access to Innovation initiative is launching a monthly virtual series for emerging professionals to help them establish a network and get career coaching. These sessions are designed to address technical skills and provide vital career and networking guidance for young professionals who may not have had an opportunity or thought to consider a career in the innovation economy. The initial late April session attracted 76 young professionals and partners who got a first-hand lesson from an SVB banker of why developing data analytics skills is key for job readiness.
Startup and Small Business Resources
SVB is supporting emergency small business grants of $10,000 through Hello Alice’s Business for All initiative. It hosts a free COVID-19 Business Resource Center that is focused on linking women- and minority-owned businesses to relief programs, funding opportunities, mentors and other support programs at local and national levels.
Join Us
SVB has thrived for more than three decades by leading with our values. None of us can know what the future will hold but we are committed to preparing in order to help our clients, employees and communities manage through this difficult time. Together, we are stronger. To learn more, please visit SVB COVID-19 Response & Community Support here.
This piece is shared as part of Pledge 1%’s #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, which highlights how Pledge 1% members and the business community are coming together as a force for good to combat COVID-19. You can read the original post on the Twilio blog.
By Erin Reilly, Twilio.
Communicating with people during a crisis—whether they’re experiencing abuse, a natural disaster, mental health challenges, or otherwise—is never easy.
These communications require incredible empathy and immediate response from the nonprofits, governments, and healthcare agencies providing care.
COVID-19 is making communications in crisis even harder.
Spikes in unemployment, increased anxiety from the pandemic, and shelter-in-place ordinances have driven up demand for many social services. City governments and health care agencies are working to serve unprecedented numbers of people, as are the nonprofits that support with humanitarian services, emergency food distribution, mental health care, sexual abuse recovery, and more.
At the same time these service organizations experience increased demand, they also have had to find a way to shift their operations to remote work wherever possible. When it rains, it pours.
To adapt to the new conditions and serve our communities best, organizations on the front lines are optimizing for agility, accessibility, and scale.
Adapting technology quickly to new environments
Most organizations change technologies on a 6-12 month timeline.
COVID-19 has made that timeline feel like an eternity.
To keep employees and members safe, organizations have adapted their programming to remote environments—with new communication channels—and in a matter of days, not months.
Given how critical their work is to at-risk communities right now, nonprofit and service organizations are leading the way. They are rethinking their processes entirely, eliminating red tape, shortening approval processes, and embracing new technology.
For the City of Pittsburgh’s IT department, changing technologies previously took months of vetting, testing, and procurement. When they received the order to move all IT help desk and 311 call center employees home, they needed to do it immediately to keep city employees safe—many of which are in higher-risk groups.
“Digital government is no longer a luxury—it’s a necessity,” said Santiago Garces, Director of Technology and Chief Information Officer for the City of Pittsburgh. “I believe the lessons learned during COVID about how government can be agile and move quickly will change the way we work forever moving forward.”
Similar to the City of Pittsburgh, Lifeline Australia, a 24-hour Telephone Crisis Support service, had to make swift changes to support remote call supervision. In one week, they spun up an entirely cloud-based and remote escalation portal. Crisis supporters can escalate urgent cases to supervisors, and debrief each case remotely via webchat.
Ensuring communities can access critical services
Many organizations are working to serve patients, at-risk communities, and constituents that don’t have access to smartphones or reliable Wi-Fi.
According to Pew Research, 29 percent of low income households don’t have access to a smartphone, and 44 percent also don’t have access to reliable internet. This lack of digital access is compounded with soaring unemployment and school closures.
As a result, web pages, mobile applications, and email are not viable options to reach this group. To ensure their services are accessible to everyone who needs them, many organizations are adopting SMS:
- Stopcovid.co offers an SMS training program to help essential workers, like grocery store clerks and delivery workers, get up to speed on COVID safety.
- Kinvolved helps school districts and teachers keep parents up to date on their children’s assignments in 80+ languages via SMS.
- And Plentiful, a technology partner for City Harvest and the United Way, provides an SMS shortcode for New York City residents to text in to schedule a time to pick up meals from a food pantry.
Accessible channels are more important than ever given the increased demands for services. Kinvolved has seen a 200 percent increase in messages per student over the past month, with more and more parent-teacher communications moving digital. Plentiful has seen a 62 percent increase in residents texting in for food appointments due to the financial impact of the COVID crisis. Their SMS platform has empowered food pantries to continue to keep patrons and volunteers at a safe distance.
Scale communications systems to handle increased demand
The number of calls city governments, healthcare providers, and crisis services are fielding is going through the roof. As a result, organizations are moving to new cloud-based systems built for scale, automation, and work from home environments.
“It is an unprecedented time in healthcare as we face caring for increasing numbers of patients affected by the virus with limited capacity. Our vital healthcare resources are constrained in ways never seen before,” said Lisa Romano, MSN, RN, Chief Nursing Officer at CipherHealth, a patient communication platform,.
To manage this increased demand, organizations are conserving limited staff resources for the most difficult cases by offering self-service options for patients and constituents to get answers to common questions.
For questions that can’t be answered with automation, organizations are building systems to route the most urgent and unique cases to doctors, counselors, and trained city staff, ensuring callers are responded to quickly. Many are adopting video conferencing to escalate these difficult cases.
Organizations like CipherHealth are deploying chatbots and intelligent voice response systems to help answer common inquiries and identify symptoms before a provider joins a call.
United Way also built an intelligent voice response system into its 211 hotline, the easy to remember number that helps people identify and access social services they are eligible for. Due to the coronavirus, 211 networks nationwide have been seeing 2-4x call volume, at 75,000 calls per day, and some call durations averaging 20 to 30 minutes, compared to their average 4 to 6.
To scale up their service, the United Way developed a streamlined routing system with interactive voice response (IVR). People can call in to a single 1-800 number or their local 211, where they are testing an artificial intelligence-assisted IVR bot to help answer commonly asked questions about COVID-19 and related services. If the caller still wants to speak to a specialist about their unique situation, they are routed based on their location to a live agent.
We’re here to help
It’s been amazing to witness how nonprofit, public sector, and healthcare organizations across the world are demonstrating an unprecedented level of innovation—not to mention grit—to scale up operations and adapt to remote work with limited resources.
At Twilio, we work with many organizations providing crisis response services. Our customer engagement platform enables organizations to quickly pivot to working from home, reach constituents on common channels, and scale up to handle increased loads.
To support organizations serving the most at-risk populations, Twilio.org launched our Crisis Response and Prevention Initiative last year to support and fund organizations in this space and bring together the best minds in technology to serve people in crisis.
Today, we’re offering a number of programs to help organizations directly responding to the crisis caused by the coronavirus.
- We’ve expanded eligibility for our Impact Access program, which provides $500 in Twilio product credits plus additional 25% discounts beyond nonprofits to any organization providing direct response efforts benefiting the public around COVID.
- Twilio Video is now free for three months for healthcare, education, and nonprofit institutions.
- Twilio Flex, our contact center product, is giving 20,000 free hours per month to organizations helping with direct response through August 31.
- We’ll soon open a grant round to fund organizations helping at-risk communities recover from COVID. You can sign up for updates here.
- Our team is standing by if you want to connect about technical advice or building solutions together.
Supporting people in crisis has never been easy, and the coronavirus has challenged us all in ways we could have never anticipated. I’m encouraged by the innovation I’ve seen in the social impact space to adapt to this new environment and emerge stronger together.
To connect with Twilio on how we might be able to collaborate on solutions, reach out to us here. We’d love to hear how we can help.
Glowforge – Lasercut mask designs and initiative to print and distribute one million “ear savers”
There’s no doubt that COVID-19 has changed our daily lives. Here at Crunchbase, we recognize and appreciate how lucky we are to be able to function as a remote team and adapt our company goals to respond to changing circumstances.
Though we are not the medical workers on the front lines fighting this pandemic, or the researchers tirelessly working to discover a vaccine, our teams were quick to think about how we can use the resources we do have in our little corner of the world to help business and entrepreneurs navigate these uncertain times.
From hosting a “COVID-19 Hack Day” to donating to and spreading awareness about nonprofits making an impact, here are a few details about our COVID-19 response thus far:
- Remote work: Our employees began working from home on March 9 – earlier than most companies in our community – to keep our employees and community safe and reduce potential exposure to the virus.
- COVID-19 Hack Day: We dedicated an entire work day to find ways to give back to the community and use our strengths for good on “COVID-19 Hack Day.”
- News coverage: Our news team has been hard at work covering the impact of COVID-19 on businesses and startups, but has also made time to keep things positive and cover startups giving back in this time of crisis.
- COVID-19 resources:
- Blog post: Our CEO, Jager McConnell, created a resource blog post for Crunchbase users and visitors that includes helpful lists to find potential prospects for businesses, information about where to go for industry-specific news and updates, tips from experts, recruiting and hiring resources, and ways to give back to the community in this time of crisis.
- Expert advice: We called on our network of entrepreneurs and business leaders who have experienced previous economic downturns to share advice on how to keep businesses afloat and compiled a resource center for people to find helpful information.
- Vlog: Our CEO also published his first ever vlog, on the PPP loan – what it is, who qualifies for it, and why it isn’t just “free money.”
- Charitable donations:
- Upon going fully remote, we reworked an existing weekly award program for our employees. Each week two employees are chosen by their colleagues for outstanding work and now win the opportunity to contribute $500 to a charity of their choice. Crunchbase also matches any additional donations to the charity picks of the week if additional employees donate. In less than two months, we have contributed over $8,000 to about 20 local and global nonprofits.
At the beginning of April, we made a donation to Direct Relief to provide PPE and essential medical items to frontline responders.
This piece is shared as part of Pledge 1%’s #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, which highlights how Pledge 1% members and the business community are coming together as a force for good to combat COVID-19.
Read the original article on the Salesforce blog.
At Salesforce, we believe that business is the greatest platform for change and we have a responsibility to give back to our communities. We are proud to join the #GivingTuesdayNow movement and use our platform to support COVID-19 response efforts.
Through our philanthropic investments, employee engagement efforts, and our technology, we are committed to helping in every way we can during the COVID-19 crisis. We know that disasters magnify existing inequities. The people who are hurt the most are those who are marginalized: communities of color, low-income individuals and families, people experiencing homelessness, immigrants, and refugees for example. COVID-19 is no exception. We are seeing the pandemic disproportionately impact vulnerable populations around the world. You can read more about our philanthropic efforts around COVID-19 here.
Ahead of #GivingTuesdayNow, we shared resources to help our 45,000 Salesforce.org customers and others in the nonprofit community make the most of this global movement by engaging their supporters. We hosted a LinkedIn AMA to answer questions from nonprofits and partnered with the GivingTuesday foundation on a blog post: 5 Ways Nonprofits Can Prepare for #GivingTuesdayNow. We focused our broader #GivingTuesdayNow communications on sharing the multitude of ways that individuals and organizations can give back to support their communities. We shared original content on our blog and social media channels focusing on different ways to give, such as inspiring virtual volunteering examples and ideas for saying thank you to those on the frontlines of the pandemic.
We also called on our 50,000+ employees to give back in the ways that resonate most with them. We launched an internal communications campaign to share resources for employees to give back, including sharing Salesforce Pro Bono volunteer opportunities and drawing attention to our company donation matching program. Salesforce employees have now logged 5 million volunteer hours! The fact that we reached this milestone in the midst of a global pandemic that has disrupted how we live, work, and volunteer makes the achievement even more remarkable.
“The world may be in lockdown, but Salesforce employees continue to do what they do best: give back to their communities,” said Ebony Beckwith, Chief Philanthropy Officer of Salesforce.
Our Equality Groups, employee-led organizations that support and celebrate our underrepresented communities, answered the call-to-action by launching a campaign to deliver relief to those most vulnerable. Through this campaign, Equality Groups matched donations to philanthropic partners up to $10,000 in addition to Salesforce’s matches to employee donations.
We’re proud of our employees, customers, and Pledge 1% partners who joined this wave of generosity, engagement, and action. We look forward to continuing these cross-sector partnerships to support those who are most impacted.
By Heather Jin, Global Head of Social Impact at Medallia
This piece is shared as part of Pledge 1%’s #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, which highlights how Pledge 1% members and the business community are coming together as a force for good to combat COVID-19.
In June 2019, Medallia formalized our social impact arm, Medallia.org, and signed Pledge 1% to commit our two superpowers — product and people powers — for social good. Now, Medallia.org is committed to doing our part in relief efforts and supporting nonprofits, who are among the most vital yet vulnerable organizations currently.
Product Power
To help nonprofits overcome challenges due to COVID-19, we are providing Medallia Crowdicity, our crowdsourcing tool, free for 6 months to new nonprofit customers. To ensure organizations quickly obtain value, we have pre-packaged the tool with COVID-19 specific templates co-designed with our current nonprofits partners — to help organizations crowdsource immediate needs and actionable ideas from their communities on issues like how to prepare the most vulnerable for disasters, engage employees and volunteers remotely, and stay financially resilient through crisis.
We are honored to enable over 30 nonprofits globally with Crowdicity, and these inspirational stories embody Medallia’s mission to create a world where everyone has a voice:
- Alzheimer’s Society is crowdsourcing immediate obstacles and gaps in services from the over 200 people with dementia and carers on their Crowdicity platform. In a matter of weeks through data sourced in Crowdicity, they have started creating an online community center to tackle isolation, will begin to distribute devices to care homes helping patients stay connected with loved ones, and more.
- Through government and nonprofit collaboration between the UK Department of Health and Social Care, UK Bioindustry Association, the British In Vitro Diagnostic Association and the Royal College of Pathologists, Crowdicity is being utilized to address UK’s target of 100k coronavirus tests per day by the end of April — they have sourced over 130 solutions to challenges such as how to speed up COVID-19 antibody testing.
If you’re a 501(c)3 or international equivalent nonprofit organization, contact us to learn how you can receive 6 months of Medallia Crowdicity at no-cost.
People Power
We are empowering Medallians to give back to causes they are passionate about through our Volunteer-Time-Off policy, where every employee has 3 days per calendar year to volunteer. For example, Medallians all over the world volunteered for CareerVillage.org by sharing career advice and supporting students and families that have been impacted by school closures. In addition, we are hosting information sessions spotlighting nonprofits facing greatly increased demand and in urgent need of virtual volunteers, as well as highlighting the inspirational Medallians giving in their own ways.
We are committed now more than ever to create a world where everyone has a voice — so we can collectively listen and work together in our fight against COVID-19.
This piece is shared as part of Pledge 1%’s #GivingTuesdayNow campaign, which highlights how Pledge 1% members and the business community are coming together as a force for good to combat COVID-19.
Our industry in particular can do, and is currently doing, great work on behalf of the first responders, frontline workers, and nonprofits and community organizations that feed, house, educate, and nurture neighbors impacted by the pandemic. And, we at Established are incredibly proud to know that many of our Startup of the Year alumni are doing what they can to help.
Some of the Startup of the Year Alumni featured:
- Aperiomics | 2018 Grand Prize Winner; Established Ventures Portfolio Company
- Extensive testing company Aperiomics is offering COVID-19 testing for clinicians and patients. Learn more and order.
- Fiveable | 2019 Top 100
- Social learning platform Fiveable is available to AP students, teachers, and school districts during school closings due to COVID-19. Learn more here.
- Gearo | 2019 Top 100
- The curated outdoor gear marketplace Gearo has launched a COVID-19 Outdoor Retailer Relief Program, where they are offering their software program free for outdoor retailers for the next six months. Learn more.
- InEvent | 2019 Top 100
- InEvent is allowing users to experience great networking events, sessions, and learning moments at no charge. Learn more.
- Jeenie | 2020 SXSW Virtual Winner
- Jeenie, which connects healthcare providers with live interpreters for confidential conversations, is donating free interpreting minutes to customers who need language assistance. Learn more or sign up for a coronavirus consultation here.
- Knack | 2018 Top 15
- Knack, whose mission is to ensure every student has access to quality academic support, is offering their technology at no cost to any tutoring centers who would like to use it. Learn more here.
- knowRX | 2020 Virtual SXSW
- Mobile app knowRX has developed a new tool, the “Individual Health Insights” app, which assists individuals and caregivers in monitoring vital signs and symptoms that may relate to the onset and progression of COVID-19. Learn more here.
- Lazarus 3D | NASA iTech (Established Partner) Winner
- Lazarus 3D prints organ and tissue models for medical training, but has temporarily pivoted due to COVID-19 and switched their factories to manufacture PPE to help supply hospitals and medical facilities. Learn more and download the PPE catalog.
- Lifekey | 2020 Startup Night SXSW
- Lifekey’s wearable technology allows instant access to personal data and automatic emergency notifications, so they are working with doctors, patients, and labs to provide a secure method for COVID-19 antibody notification and verification. Learn more.
- Litesprite | 2018 Top 100
- Litesprite’s games can deliver data-driven insight to clinicians and patients, allowing providers to conduct clinical remote patient monitoring, while their mental health video game, Sinasprite, is available for anyone who needs a few minutes of self-care. Learn more here.
- MemoryWell | 2018 Top 100
- MemoryWell, the digital platform for storytelling that brings the skills of professional writers to the challenge of helping elders tell their stories, are offering free access to the timelines on their platform. Learn more and participate here.
- NeuroFlow | 2019 Top 15
- NeuroFlow‘s Coronavirus Risk Assessment & Anxiety Screener will help route high-risk individuals to location specific testing resources, while also providing evidence-based tools and information to support the mental wellness of all during this difficult time. Learn more, and take the screener here.
- OneMilo | 2018 Grand Prize Winner; 2018 Top 100 & 2018 Startup Night SXSW Top 5; NASA iTech (Established Partner) Winner
- OneMilo is currently taking orders for its COVID-19 IgG IgM SmartRapid qualitative immunoassay for the rapid detection of IgG and IgM antibodies to COVID-19 in human finger prick whole blood specimens. For more information visit here.
- re:3D | 2019 Grand Prize Winner
- re:3D‘s Gigabot flagship technology enables industrial strength, large format 3D printing at an affordable cost, so they are making PPE for hospitals in Texas and supporting community efforts to provide PPE in Puerto Rico and with their global community fighting COVID-19. Learn more here.
- Trust & Will | 2018 Top 100
- Trust & Will makes setting up a guardianship, will, or trust as simple as possible, and beginning April 1st any healthcare professional working in a public health setting in the U.S. can apply to receive a free will-based estate plan for themselves; including health care documents, HIPAA Authorization, and Medical Power of Attorney. Learn more, and start planning here.
- VictimsVoice | 2019 Top 100
- VictimsVoice, which gives victims a legal voice by providing a legally admissible way for victims to document abuse incidents in a safe, secure, consistent, complete, and private manner, is low and no-cost assistance. Learn more here.
Meanwhile, Established and Startup of the Year’s community partners are doing all they can to help:
- AFWERX
- AFWERX is a community of Air Force innovators who strive to connect airmen to solutions across the force. The U.S. Air Force has established the Unite and Fight: COVID-19 Response Team initiative to assess and rapidly respond to challenges presented by this pandemic. They are collecting information from both government and non-government personnel who are interested in getting involved. All solutions are welcome. Learn more, and submit here.
- Hello Alice
- Hello Alice is a free platform that helps businesses launch and grow. They have a resource center updated daily with real-world funding, resources, and support for small business owners adapting to the impacts of coronavirus. Hello Alice is also offering $10K Business for All Emergency Grants to businesses in needWhat do you need help with? Visit here.
- Covalent Logic
- Covalent Logic is a corporate communications firm with offices in Austin and Baton Rouge, and it serves global clients like Shell Chemical and Hilton Worldwide. They were formed in 2005, in the middle of a crisis, and have tips and guidance covering working remotely, how to help your neighbors, and more. Read the news bits here.
- Embarc Collective
- Embarc Collective is a startup collective composed of curators of experiences, resources, and environment that help forward-thinking founders and their teams thrive in Tampa Bay, FL. They have developed an open source database to support entrepreneurs and their families during the COVID-19 pandemic. View the database, add to it, and share it here.
Learn more about these efforts and more at https://soty.link/COVID19Resources.
By Salesforce Ventures. Read original piece here.
While these are clearly trying times, we see stories of generosity all around us as people find new ways to show solidarity with those who are most in need. In an effort to help people and organizations throughout the global community find solutions to this crisis, many companies are making their products and services more accessible. From free technology tools for first responders and healthcare organizations, to assistance for struggling individuals and businesses, companies are doing what they can to support the cause and quicken recovery.
We’ve provided a roundup of resources being offered by Salesforce Ventures portfolio companies below. For more information about these programs, please reach out to the companies directly.
Benefits for first responders and healthcare organizations
BugCrowd is offering emergency response teams, hospitals, & care providers free access to their Vulnerability Disclosure Program and Attack Surface Analysis for the next 90 days.
Guild Education has partnered with Southern New Hampshire University and Penn Foster to build free training courses to assist workers on the front lines of the COVID-19 pandemic with staying safe.
JazzHR is providing JazzHR PRO for free to Primary, Emergency & Urgent Care providers. Sign up by May 1, 2020.
Snyk’s cloud-native application security solution is free for six months to organizations in the healthcare, hospitality, travel and entertainment industries.
Free or discounted tools for organizations working on COVID-19 solutions
Algolia’s Pro Plan is free to any developer or team working on COVID-19-related, not-for-profit websites or apps.
Automation Anywhere has a free thirty-day trial of Automation Anywhere’s Enterprise A2019 to create bots for solutions to aid those affected by COVID-19.
CartoDB is offering its spatial analysis and visualization platform to private and public sector companies using maps to fight against the COVID-19 outbreak.
Copado announced the immediate availability of free access to its platform for anyone working on applications to fight COVID-19.
Dropbox Business and HelloSign Enterprise subscriptions are free for a three-month period to nonprofits and NGOs that are focused on fighting COVID-19.
Helpshift is offering our technology to community, government and healthcare organizations at no cost, enabling them to leverage the power of automation to rapidly scale operations without additional staff.
PropelPLM launched the Healthcare Manufacturer Community, a free and open community built on Salesforce Care which contains easy to navigate medical device designs, sourcing and component data, and documentation that allows companies to pivot and manufacture ventilators, as well as other life-saving medical equipment.
Free or discounted access for schools, teachers and students
AdmitHub is offering free access to the AdmitHub platform and its AI-powered bot to the government & educational community for 90 days.
Hustle’s texting platform is free through May 31, 2020 (up to 10,000 messages) to help governments, NGOs, and schools to connect with their communities.
Zoom is free to all new users and has lifted the 40-minute meeting limit for free Basic accounts for K-12 schools. Zoom is used by businesses for meetings, by families to keep in touch, and by teenagers who want to hang out with their friends.
Vidyard is offering free access to Vidyard for Schools to enable teachers and staff to record and share secure video messages for better engagement with students, parents, colleagues, and the community.
Services that make it easier to give back
Beliive is using technology and time exchange to help individuals connect with one another. By sharing an hour of knowledge or experience with someone in the community, you receive a credit that can then be used to learn from someone else.
Catalant is waiving their fee on projects for qualified 501(c)(3)s that need to accelerate strategic work to help people affected by the pandemic.
UniteUs is offering an option for new communities to launch a rapid-response network for the immediate crisis that also provides the infrastructure to grow in the coming months.
Financial assistance for individuals
FutureFuel launched a free service to help all student loan holders get on federal repayment plans that lower monthly payments, all the way down to $0 for 12 months.
Support for small businesses
Automattic’s WooCommerce has partnered with GoDaddy to offer 3 months of WordPress e-commerce and hosting for just $1.
BringgNOW, a last-mile delivery solution to immediately launch or scale your delivery operations is free for SMBs.
Digital Asset’s world-class legal team is available free of charge to advise small companies who may be struggling under the current circumstances.
Gusto has put together a compilation of federal, state, and private resources to help small businesses find loans, grants, and credits.
SmartRecruiters SmartStart is available to make hiring easy for teams and smaller organizations of up to 250 employees. SmartStart is entirely free with an unlimited number of users and candidates.
nCino’s SBA solution helps to quickly respond to regulatory changes as a result of the CARES Act and the Paycheck Protection Program by decreasing loan processing time and increasing capacity for new loan applications.
Ureeka has partnered with Salesforce for the Salesforce Care Small Business Grants as the grant application, judging and community partner. Ureeka will provide businesses with grant application support, ongoing resources, and counsel.
Tools to help companies take care of their employees
Pymetrics is offering two free solutions, Digital Interviewing and Internal Mobility to companies interviewing or looking to move current employees to different roles.
Simplrr is waiving implementation fees and offering a two-week deployment to support organizations with an enterprise-wide internal communications platform to keep the workforce connected and aligned.
Vidyard is offering its new internal communications tool free through June 30 to help companies adjust and stay connected to your remote workforce
Thousand Eyes is offering free use of their end-user experience monitoring agents for 90 days to IT teams that need to support remote workers at an unprecedented scale due to precautions businesses are taking in response to COVID-19. Reach out to their team by June 30, 2020.
Information and other resources
Forter has created this weekly report to share insights on consumer behavior and fraud trends during this unprecedented time.
Gusto has a resource hub that provides SMBs with updated news, information, and advice as you navigate this difficult time.
Traction on Demand, through their initiative, Respond Together, is sharing an online inventory of response solutions that highlight rapid development projects they’ve completed and made available to others who might benefit from their use.
If you want to join or support the cause
Loop & Tie Founder and CEO Sara Rodell along with other technology leaders joined together to provide donated tablets to hospitals across the United States to connect critically ill COVID-19 patients with family members. Loop & Tie repurposed their operational structure to help receive orders from hospitals, device donations, and manage shipping and handling of devices to matching recipients.
Spearheaded by Rachel Carlson, CEO of Guild Education, Stop the Spread (STS) is a coalition of 1,500+ volunteer CEOs working to unlock the collective potential of US businesses to catalyze action and bolster the public sector in response to COVID-19.