COVID-19 Highlights Need for Agile Business Plans, Non-Profit Efforts, Background Checks

Agility has been a key trait for businesses to remain successful during COVID-19. Fashion houses quickly turned to sewing masks in order to obtain “essential” status, provide PPE, and keep employees working. Delivery services boosted their offerings to stock essential businesses and households while helping citizens shelter at home. Restaurants used their access to wholesale goods to find food and supplies they could divvy up for customers in need.

Non-profits, too, have been forced to refocus their efforts because of the pandemic. In Pittsburgh, COVID-19 forced 412 Food Rescue to shift into its highest gear since its start in 2015. The non-profit claims food that would otherwise go to waste and redistributes it to non-profits like food banks and kitchens. When shelter-at-home orders hit, 412 Food Rescue’s small team of volunteers had to alter its efforts dramatically, temporarily sidelining senior volunteers and adding no-contact protocols for its remaining drivers.

Before COVID-19, 412 Food Rescue had been delivering to about 60 non-profits. Afterward, it was delivering directly to thousands of homes. The team’s efforts are all coordinated through a mobile app, which was downloaded 1200 times in March by new people volunteering to help.

Worldwide, volunteerism among communities has been a light through this dark period of uncertainty.  Non-profits like 412 Food Rescue graciously meet the needs of vulnerable citizens, but that requires the sharing of home addresses and other personal information with volunteers who, for all practical purposes, are strangers. The only recourse non-profits have to protect its beneficiaries, team, and reputation are background checks.

ClearStar offers non-profit background check solutions with fast turnaround times and low costs so non-profits can more easily accept a sudden influx of help when it’s needed without having to accept unnecessary risks.

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