By Lance Pierce, CEO of NetHope
Organizations that have spent decades building trust and delivering vital services are being forced to make heart-wrenching decisions with devastating trade-offs. Programs that communities depend on for survival, health, education, and opportunity are being scaled back or shuttered entirely. The human cost is staggering. Staff trained to help vulnerable populations are losing their jobs. Communities are losing access to vital services. Digital initiatives, including NetHope's own Digital Leadership Institute, are threatened with termination as millions in funding disappear. This isn't just a financial crisis—it's a human one that jeopardizes lives, livelihoods, and decades of progress.
Yet in this moment of profound challenge, I see our community's greatest strength emerging: our capacity to face uncertainty together.
The NetHope Effect. Built for This Moment, Fully Mobilized
For 24 years, NetHope has served as the connective tissue between international nonprofits and the technology sector. Today, this network of highly functioning connections, effective alliances, and long-standing friendships is proving more essential than ever. When the scale of the challenge became apparent in January, we mobilized an urgent, sector-wide response to stave off deeper harms.
“We appreciate your critical input and guidance, and the community you create.
We need this now more than ever.”
- Voices from the NetHope Community
We are continuing to respond swiftly with a cross-sector emergency effort to safeguard lives, data, and dignity. NetHope is facilitating global conversations in our Working Groups and Regional Chapter meetings, and aiding collaboration among our Members to ensure the sector stays connected and solutions are developed quickly. Among other things we are surging our on-demand Virtual Chief Information Security Officer (vCISO) and Virtual Chief Information Officer (vCIO) services. We’re creating flash toolkits and resources to help nonprofits assess their digital impacts, adapt to the crisis, support the mental health of staff, and stay operational. We are platforming news, impact data, stories from experts across the field, and actionable real-time solutions from our Members. We’ve facilitated critical knowledge-sharing on topics related to protecting digital assets and sensitive data during rapid organizational change, preventing potential exploitation of vulnerable populations through the Global Humanitarian ISAC. Our corporate partners are also stepping into the breach with us, launching nonprofit hardship programs and relief for contracts while developing new offers for nonprofits relevant and ready to put into action in this moment. And we’ve launched the Emergency Digital 4 Good Bridge Fund to provide critical support to our Members, their implementing partners, and the broader humanitarian community. I am proud to say in a relatively short time we have hit 50% of our goal for the Bridge Fund thanks to the generosity of this community.
This is the "NetHope Effect" in its most vivid and powerful form—enabling collective action that transcends what any single organization could accomplish alone. And together, our Community is bridging to a more resilient future where digital enables nonprofits to do more with less, reach more people with greater impact, and build systems that can withstand the next crisis before it arrives.
“We are very grateful for the advocacy NetHope has done on behalf of the community… it was incredibly inspiring to see NetHope stand up and take a leadership position to advocate on behalf of our sector.”
- Voices from the NetHope Community
Stronger Together: Charting the Future Together
Whether due to sudden system shocks like the current funding crisis or long-horizon trends like climate change and digital transformation, the need for collaboration, innovation, and resilience has never been greater. As the world changes and the sector boldly confronts uncertainty, NetHope remains a trusted convener, partner, and resource, committed to helping our community successfully navigate this evolving landscape.
We remain strong in the face of the crisis and we will continue our work to support the sector. In part because of that, our community is also growing. New organizations are continuing to join NetHope, seeking out our community as we forge new alliances for a world where organizations will have fewer resources. NetHope will continue its ongoing efforts and will be rolling out new programming and services, meeting both ongoing as well as new demands. The need to do more with less and the power of technology to enable mission impact cements NetHope’s mission as a vital need for the sector, whether focused on fundamentals like digital skills and leadership, or newer technologies like AI, and the need to implement it responsibly and effectively.
“…the material provided on this has been fantastic. Very clear and easy to understand with the respective positions and viewpoints. Thank you to NetHope for doing such a great job navigating here, and helping to make it easier to contribute.”
- Voices from the NetHope Community
Our direct program innovations are likewise meeting the moment. We will soon be launching an nonprofit specific AI Skilling Initiative to help NGOs mainstream and manage this powerful new technology effectively in the contexts they work in. Humanitarian cybersecurity remains fundamental, so that organizations can operate safely and protect people’s data at a time when cyber attacks are increasing. In this area, our Global Humanitarian ISAC has 59 organizations and counting, hosting a secure space to share cyber threat information and access vital services. And localization: the importance of supporting the whole aid supply chain, including local nonprofits at the last mile of delivery, has become even more of an imperative. This crisis will exacerbate the need and complicate the pace of localization. Yet despite the complications NetHope, and the NetHope community of INGOs, donors and partners, remain steadfast in our commitment to welcome more NGOs to the positive power of digital transformation. NetHope is speeding up our efforts to widen our successful community of practice, and we look forward to announcing our localization-supporting program more broadly soon. Of course, we are anticipating October, when all of this will come together at our 30th NetHope Global Summit under the theme "Stronger Together: Charting the Future Together”. We hope you can be with us and our vibrant, strong, innovative, and inspiring Member community alongside our corporate partners and sponsors.
Join Us
“NetHope is so important right now.”
- Voices from the NetHope Community
When I meet with CEOs of our Member organizations, and take part in listening sessions across our community, there seems to be a consensus that the future of global relief and development will forever be altered by this crisis. Yet, time and time again, our CEOs and our Member organizations enthusiastically reaffirm the value of their participation in NetHope, both as an organization and as a network focused on practical solutions, rapid response to evolving events, and a trusted space for forging new strategies together. Together we are building new resilience to positively shape the future.
You are an important part of the NetHope Global Community. Join us, lean in, and consider contributing to this timely and vitally important effort by donating to the Digital 4 Good Bridge Fund to support care-giving, life-saving organizations in crisis.
The stakes have never been higher. But neither has the opportunity to fundamentally transform how our sector works--and who it works for. NetHope is proud to lead and to serve in this moment of change. Together, we will develop a roadmap for the future; a future grounded in the power of collaboration, with more resilience, and where we can meet the moment with hope, purpose, and strength of our shared vision in the way that only the NetHope Community can--together.
