episode 81: “Life After the CoronaVirus: Planting the Seeds of Growth and Resilience” with Lawson Bader and Tracie Sharp

The outbreak of the CoronaVirus has created a health crisis.
But federal, state and local governments’ reactions to this challenge – however well intentioned – have created an economic crisis that will linger past any recovery from or stabilization of the spread of the disease.
The economy’s been broken and government action cannot bring it back, only alleviate some of the pain.
It’s the private sector that will provide lasting solutions to restoring a vibrant America. Of course businesses will play a significant role, but often overlooked is how our civil society non-profit institutions will also be making a big difference.
Joining me to talk about this are Lawson Bader CEO of DonorsTrust which directs donor dollars to highly promising conservative and libertarian nonprofit groups throughout the country and Tracie Sharp CEO of The State Policy Network which works with public policy and activist groups in all 50 states.
They are leaders of the newly formed Growth and Resilience Project resiliencenow@donorstrust.org, which is bringing together donors to fund civil society solutions to the problems brought about by the CoronaVirus.
Tracie and Lawson have some of the best windows into what’s working and what isn’t working throughout the United States.
One surprising conclusion that we reached is that are actually good reasons for optimism.
As Tracie points out, “after the Black Plague, a renaissance occurred” and a silver lining to this pandemic may be that we rethink a lot of our institutions, the way we do things.
For example, schools have been shut down, and it’s forced a lot of people into either homeschooling in the case of K-12 or computer-based, Zoom-based classes in the case of colleges.
There’s over 100 of these kind of solution ideas on the State Policy Network website spn.org/coronavirus of private, voluntary action that really show America at its best. “We’re seeing neighbor helping neighbor.”
This is where philanthropy can step up and help really alleviate the suffering that’s going on, get our economy going again, and getting people back to work.