Philanthropy can serve as a trusted source for actionable, empathetic communications that help grantees prevent the spread of disease, preserve well-being, maintain social cohesion, and respond to economic hardship.
Social Cohesion
- Pandemics are personal and interpersonal because we make each other sick. We must address the financial, social, and psychological conditioning that prompts us to work when sick.
- Effective pandemic response requires isolation: create a virtual connection to form social cohesion that drives effective response to other types of crisis or disaster.
- Pandemics hit the most vulnerable the hardest. Philanthropy can support an effective response that addresses social isolation’s added complexity.
Psycho-Social Responses
Dr. Sara McBride, an emergency management communications expert, claims that two opposing attitudes usually represent our response to the public health crises.
- Monitors consume as much information as possible. For a monitor, information is self-soothing, and knowledge equals power.
- Blunters minimize information to just the essentials. Volumes of information cause them to feel overwhelmed and fearful.
Counter Fear with Actionable Messages
- Our brains can misperceive the level of risk. We can outsmart them with a pragmatic, effective response.
- Fear can drive individualistic behaviors (“I know what’s right”) that lead to panic, stoke racism and xenophobia, and deter effective containment of the disease.
- Fear can detract from tending to vulnerable people, including the elderly, those with pre-existing respiratory, those living in immunocompromising conditions, and unhoused individuals.
Practical Tips for Communicating Coronavirus Preparedness and Response
Communicate Action
Include simple, actionable messages in every communication to help suppress fear and overcome feelings of powerlessness.
- Wash Your Hands, Cover Your Cough, Stay Home When You’re Sick
- Include photos and graphics as examples: “Alan is washing his hands. Emily’s covering her cough. Kara is staying home ‘til she’s feeling well.”
Instigate social cohesion
Start a phone tree or text chain to check on co-workers, activate social media platforms with direct, even light-hearted, messages that express care.
Acknowledge fear and anxiety
Affirm that it’s understandable and okay for people to make decisions they feel are right for them (e.g., staying home, avoiding travel, etc.).
Provide assurance
- Assure people that research-based, scientifically-grounded protocols are in place to prevent the spread of the virus and preserve well-being.
- Sanitize the surfaces of meeting spaces.
- Adopt a cool elbow-bump greeting.
- Webcast staff meetings so that everyone, including those who needed to stay home, could connect.
Posting
- Amplify messaging from health agencies
- Post accurate, timely information to your website to builds trust. By amplifying good messaging, we aid government agencies in handling the pandemic in getting their messages out.
- Point people towards reliable information rather than trying to lead the news
- Link to the US Center for Disease Control & Prevention’s (CDC) information page.
Internal communications
- Communicate preparedness without being alarmist.
- Instigate meeting protocols.
- Explicitly tell your staff that they should take sick days if they do not feel well and that meetings can be remote if needed.
Programs and Conferences
- Provide plenty of hand sanitizer.
- Communicate the protective measures and precautions in place before the event.
- Be transparent on whether you will be holding an event and your reasoning behind the decisions.
- Advise guests that you are using foot shakes and elbow bumps as modes of greeting instead of shaking hands.
- Advise guests to stay home if they aren’t feeling well. Additionally, request input from event registrants and guests regarding how they think about their safety and what precautions they are taking?