Makers Respond

An initiative to rally makers, manufacturers, and markets to support COVID-19 response

Context

Behind the scenes, invisible to many, there is a grassroots collective of volunteers working to solve problems like the shortage of medical equipment – for instance, personal protective equipment (PPE) – for healthcare workers. They have demonstrated an ability to innovate and move quickly, often faster than governments. 

In recent weeks, as health systems recognize maker networks’ ability to fill critical supply shortages, makers have been flooded with requests for PPE. Their willingness is abundant, but demand has overwhelmed these volunteer groups’ resources and logistical capacity. They can do more, but require materials to make equipment, funds for shipping and core costs, and resources and expertise to support scaling in response to the level of this crisis. 

Thousands of non-profit or volunteer makers and micro-manufacturers across the world are contributing their time and digging into their own pockets to pay for materials that they then make into PPE and give away to their local hospitals, healthcare workers, and nursing homes. Skilled engineers who started out designing and producing critical PPE are now involved in fundraising, networking, strategy, operations, and even media response. 

Society will benefit from an immediate investment of philanthropic and corporate resources in maker networks – and a strengthening of these networks – to ensure an ongoing capacity for crisis response. 

The Solution

RESOLVE is helping leaders in this network launch Makers Respond, a structured, resourced, rapid-response system that matches financial and material resources with volunteers who can quickly transform them and deliver them to medical systems in need. This initiative is able to leverage the capacity of large-scale supply chains to amplify the efforts of maker communities. In the future, after the current crisis, Makers Respond will be able quickly scale up and scale down, as needed.   

The immediate priority is to get resources to maker networks, both funds and material. We will put these resources into the right hands, remove obstacles, and connect leaders along the supply and resource value chain. 

We also seek partners who can bring their financial or in-kind expertise to support maker networks and the stand-up of this program. Please reach out to Sarah Thompson and Bill Schongar to learn more.