As anxieties surrounding COVID-19 have spread rapidly over the past week, the nonprofit sector has been dealing with the sunk costs and vanishing revenue associated with cancelled events and the concomitant drop in funding as it confronts the possibility of a global recession.
One of the less discussed but strongly felt results of this public health crisis has been the loss of volunteers. Many nonprofits, particularly those focused on our most critical social services like feeding and housing community members, rely heavily on a volunteer workforce—a workforce that is now disappearing due to warnings to stay at home.