In this blog we spotlight the agility of one of our clients, the Women’s Foundation of Colorado, in their response to the unforeseen challenges COVID-19 has presented to their grant recipients and community. By taking a systemic and intersectional approach that looks at race, gender, and class, WFCO centers equity in its strategic grant-making and serves as a model for how philanthropy can advance equity.

As our daily lives are rapidly changing, leaders are being stretched to new lengths in their effectiveness, approach, and decision making. To be an effective leader, one must be agile during times of crisis and rely on their emotional intelligence to meet the needs of their followers.

In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, we are facing unprecedented times characterized by social distancing-- business and school closures, panic shopping, and entire cities on lockdown-- the collective of which has virtually upended every facet of our lives. The enormous cognitive load involved in processing what is happening around us is causing a form of shared trauma that our society hasn’t felt for generations.