Dear Subscriber,

As we were putting the finishing touches on the May issue, we heard from one of our readers describing what the past few weeks have been like.

Many nonprofit leaders, she wrote, “are working exhausting hours with or on behalf of people desperately affected, perhaps putting themselves or their staff at great risk; some are laying off staff and closing down operations temporarily or permanently, and some of us are completely reinventing how to do the work, each day over and over as the situation changes.” And, she added: “Some of us are losing people to the pandemic and grieving while doing a combination of these things and more.”

We had all of those challenges in mind as we shaped the new issue, which went online today. We hope that our articles will offer you a quick way to reconnect with your peers to understand how they’re handling the crisis and get advice from experts. Most important, I hope it will help you begin to reimagine a world that emerges better and stronger because of philanthropy’s leadership.

Among the highlights of our special report:

Seeking a way out: Nonprofits are struggling to get loans and figure out the best ways to downsize and avoid painful layoffs, Jim Rendon reports. He asked experts how to avert the worst-case scenarios, including how nonprofit leaders should work with their boards — a challenge for many groups these days, including one leader who says her board has so shirked its duties, she may leave her job once the crisis ends.

Cash is king: Foundations and wealthy donors are increasingly supporting efforts to give direct cash aid to those in need because of the economy’s freefall, Alex Daniels reports. That idea was slow to gain steam before the Covid-19 crash but now is taking off in ways proponents hope will outlast the pandemic.

Quick pivots: Community groups around the country are shifting their missions to meet local needs. Colorado’s Goodwill, for example, was ordered to shut its stores and had to furlough workers, but as it was doing that, it still managed to collect hundreds of scrubs from its locations across the state to deliver to nurses in desperate need of them, Jim reports.

Courage in action: Claudia Medina tells Eden Stiffman how she is working to protect victims of domestic violence and her employees at Enlace Communitario, in Albuquerque, N.M., and Lance Cheslock tells Dan Parks how his organization, La Puente, is helping a rural Colorado community, which already had high rates of hunger and homelessness, deal with coronavirus.

You can find more about what is in the issue in our table of contents, including a piece by Michael Anft about how Brotherhood/Sister Sol, a black-led nonprofit in Harlem with a strong track record helping kids escape poverty and crime, is now taking on a new task: helping its neighbors deal with the pandemic’s toll. And don’t miss another feature Michael wrote detailing how the group doubled its fundraising revenue in five years and its advice on what other nonprofits can learn from its success.

And in our opinion pages, we asked three leading thinkers to talk about what’s needed next:

Tim Foley for The Chronicle

Jessamyn Shams-Lau, co-CEO of the Peery Foundation, urges foundation leaders to stem an exodus of nonprofit staff members burning out because of financial stress, changing needs for services, and anxiety over the struggles of their clients.

Antony Bugg-Levine, head of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, urges foundations to avert a crisis in the making: Groups that are led by and serve people of color could suffer major setbacks or even close as the Covid-19 crisis shuts down the economy because grant makers and policy makers have built a system that is often unresponsive and distrustful of them.

David Morse, former top communications official at Atlantic, Pew, and Robert Wood Johnson foundations, outlines how philanthropy can take the lead in building a better normal as America emerges from the pandemic.

As you can see, in our monthly magazine and every weekday online, we’re putting an increasing priority on first-person accounts so you can hear what people at foundations and nonprofits are saying and experiencing in these challenging days.

That’s because some of the best counsel on what to do during the crisis comes directly from people like you.

After we published an article about what nonprofit leaders can do now, one reader offered additional ideas: “Learn to sew and make masks,” she suggested, or “organize an advocacy campaign to get Congress to pass a nonprofit bailout bill.”

But perhaps the most important thing she said was to reach out to one another: “Call one of your colleagues at another nonprofit who is working 15-hour days and ask how you can help.”

We hope you know you can call (or email) us anytime for help, too. Our editors and reporters are standing by to find the answers you need so please direct your questions to me or to askanexpert@philanthropy.com. Stay well and stay vigilant.

Stacy Palmer
Editor