Fast Company magazine separately named the COVID-19 Action Fund for Africa (CAF-Africa) a finalist in the Pandemic Response category. Since August 2020, CAF-Africa has committed and delivered more than 66 million pieces of medical PPE for almost 500,000 community health workers in 18 African countries. Direct Relief provided $10 million in funding to secure and purchase the PPE amid a global shortage of supplies, and obtained transportation from the manufacturers in Asia to Africa.

Fast Company’s annual awards honor the businesses, policies, projects, and concepts that are actively engaged and deeply committed to pursuing innovation when it comes to solving health and climate crises, social injustice, or economic inequality.

“There is no question our society and planet are facing deeply troubling times. So, it’s important to recognize organizations that are using their ingenuity, impact, design, scalability, and passion to solve these problems,” says Stephanie Mehta, editor-in-chief of Fast Company.

Even before the novel coronavirus appeared, Direct Relief was the first large humanitarian organization to invest heavily in manufacturing N95 masks, which it distributes every fire season to fire fighters, first responders, and wildfire evacuees.

As a result, at the beginning of 2020, the world’s largest supply of N95 masks in charitable hands was housed in Direct Relief’s headquarters. The organization had just completed a large-scale response to the 2019 Australia wildfires, and had replenished its supply in anticipation of an active California fire season in 2020.

Starting in January 2020, Direct Relief recognized that if Covid-19 were to spread globally, it would lead to tremendous demand for PPE. Direct Relief worked to get ahead of the pandemic by boosting its inventory of PPE, identifying and sourcing the medicine hospitals would need, and procuring diagnostic and respiratory equipment, such as pulse oximeters, oxygen concentrators, and ventilators.

Since sending its first shipment of PPE and emergency medication in response to Covid-19 on Jan. 27, 2020, Direct Relief has provided more than 77 million N95 and surgical masks, 14 million exam gloves, 3 million face shields, and hundreds of thousands of other Covid-19 related items to hospitals and clinics across all U.S. states and territories and more than 90 countries.

A panel of eminent Fast Company editors and reporters selected winners and finalists for the World Changing Ideas Awards from a pool of more than 4,000 entries across transportation, education, food, politics, technology, and more. The 2021 awards feature entries from across the globe, from Brazil to Denmark to Vietnam.

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In the not-for-profit category, the top three spots went to Girls Who Code, DonorsChoose.Org, and Direct Relief.

Direct Relief, which also received this recognition in 2015, delivers lifesaving medical resources throughout the world to communities in need—without regard to politics, religion, or ability to pay.

Recent innovations achieved by the organization  include:

• With support from AbbVie, transitioning Puerto Rico’s health centers to resilient smart grids using solar power with battery storage, to prevent interruptions in care caused by future natural disasters.
• Constructing a technology-infused 155,000-square-foot headquarters and distribution center to ensure that its humanitarian relief activities meet stringent new federal requirements related to secure storage and distribution of prescription medications and are conducted in the most efficient manner possible to meet the increased demand stemming from emergencies and in areas of chronic need.
• Engaging Tesla to build a microgrid to ensure uninterrupted operations and maintenance of critical cold-chain capacity for vaccines, insulin, and medications requiring cold storage in the event of extended loss of grid power for many months.
• Working with Facebook to use anonymized location information to determine the movement and location of people fleeing California forest fires, guiding how Direct Relief distributed N-95 breathing masks to protect the public from smoke inhalation.

The recognition came after a year defined by humanitarian crises and natural disasters of unprecedented scale during which Direct Relief responded more expansively than ever before in its 70-year history—delivering more than $1.1 billion in humanitarian assistance to locally-run healthcare providers in 100 countries, including $231 million in aid to communities in 50 U.S. states, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

“Direct Relief receives no government funding and its work is fueled by the generosity, passion, and participation of people from all backgrounds and companies of all types and industries just wanting to help people who need it,” said Direct Relief President and CEO Thomas Tighe. “This wonderful recognition is a testament to their involvement, which provides the energy and the ideas and for which we are deeply grateful.”

Direct Relief earned a four-star rating for 2018 from Charity Navigator, America’s largest independent charity evaluator, the eighth consecutive time that Direct Relief has earned this top distinction. Of the more than 8,000 charities rated by Charity Navigator, Direct Relief is one of only 66 to receive a perfect 100 score.

Others recognizing Direct Relief recently include the Center for High Impact Philanthropy at University of Pennsylvania (2019 High Impact Giving Guide), Wallet Hub (2018’s Best Charities for Holiday Giving), Okta (2018 Oktane Award Finalist) and TheStreet (30 Charities That Won’t Waste Your Money).

This year, Fast Company’s editors and writers sought out groundbreaking businesses across 35 industries and every region. The World’s Most Innovative Companies provides both a snapshot and a road map for the future of innovation across the most dynamic sectors of the economy.

Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies issue (March-April 2019) is now available online at https://www.fastcompany.com/MIC, as well as in app form via iTunes and on newsstands beginning February 27th.

The post The World’s Most Innovative Nonprofits, According to Fast Company appeared first on Direct Relief.

The Ebola outbreak began in December of 2013 in a small village near the border between Guinea and Liberia. From that remote epicenter emerged a pattern of infection that blazed across parts of six countries in West Africa, sparking a number of isolated cases in Europe and the United States. Now, as the tide turns against the virus, with reported cases slowing dramatically, it’s worth reflecting on what made a difference in the response and what will most impact the long-term recovery and rebuilding of West Africa’s health systems.

Among many factors, Direct Relief’s inclusion among Fast Company’s 10 most innovative not-for-profit companies suggests that part of the answer may well be “better maps.”

Direct Relief began mapping the spread of Ebola cases in April, 2014 as it became apparent that the case rates were increasing faster than in past outbreaks. Using open data compiled from World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sources, as well as reports from partners like HealthMap.org, we started to see the virus moving into areas where long-standing local partners were operating health programs. This information helped inform where early supply shipments could be targeted. Then, as the case counts mounted over the summer and dramatically larger response efforts were assembled in the early fall, those same maps became living records of where epidemiology met humanitarian response. Questions like, “Where are the hotspots?” and “Where is the virus moving?” could be paired with questions like, “Where are the supply shortages the worst?” “Where are health facilities still functioning?” and “Where has aid that we’ve sent been received?”

What Difference Does a Map Make?

Mapping, in other words, connects different pieces of a complex landscape in such a way that each piece informs and deepens the understanding of the others. Without knowing where case counts are likely to increase, and where those increasing case counts might be the result of things like the absence of sufficient medical supplies, it’s difficult to fill the most significant gaps in supply. Without the ability to demonstrate where aid has gone and what good it did, it’s difficult to assure donors and other key stakeholders of the efficacy of their donations. And without close attention to changing dynamics and needs at the community level, it’s difficult to strategize how to improve health systems moving forward. Fortunately, Direct Relief and its partner organizations are well placed to use geography and data analysis to improve the quality of response activities.

An illustrative example of such a partnership involves Direct Relief’s collaboration with the Liberian community health worker (CHW) organization Last Mile Health. The model which makes Last Mile Health effective involves tracking a range of health conditions, including possible Ebola exposure, at the household level. This allows teams of community health workers to target specific interventions and analyze the distribution of conditions and needs.

Direct Relief delivered a number of GPS units to Last Mile Health. The units helped facilitate real-time messaging from remote areas, which allowed some of the first maps of Last Mile’s catchment areas to be built. As Last Mile’s coverage area expanded with the Ebola epidemic, Direct Relief and Last Mile connected with teams from Humanitarian OpenStreetMap. Together, the organizations worked to establish the basis for a dynamic local-area epidemiology by mapping every individual household structure tied to CHW outreach efforts. As a result, these maps will provide crucial information infrastructure for any future health system in Liberia.

The Ebola outbreak reveals, once again, that better maps provide better insights into how to provide better care and more resilient systems for the people who need it most. That’s an insight that needs to carry over more frequently into the everyday work of building better health systems everywhere around the world so that events like what has transpired over the past year in West Africa is less likely to happen again.

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