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Mask & PPE Supplies for the Frontline

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HELLO EVERYONE as of 3/30/2020: WE COMBINED EFFORTS AT THIS GOFUNDME in Partnership with the GLoGoodFoundation - link here:

https://charity.gofundme.com/o/en/campaign/sonsielxglogood

We are working hard to have GoFundMe combine the two campaigns, which is proving challenging. For the moment, we will send up updates on both GoFundMe accounts - but if you want to stay up to date, please make a small donation (even $1) to the other campaign, so you can stay up to date on the efforts of our combined efforts by partnering with the GLO Good Foundation and the incredible impact we are having getting masks and PPE to the Frontlines. 

On March 17, 2020, the Society of Nurse Scientists Innovators Entrepreneurs & Leaders (SONSIEL) launched an urgent call-to-action to move supplies of personal protective equipment (PPE), including vital respirator masks, to healthcare providers on the frontline care for COVID-19 patients. The SONSIEL program is called SHARE (Strengthen Healthcare Ability to Respond to Emergencies). On March 20, 2020, ABC News Nightline aired a story, “Communities help collect medical supplies as coronavirus threatens shortages,” featuring the SONSIEL SHARE program and valiant, nationwide efforts rapidly rising to meet the need.

Link to ABC NIGHTLINE HERE 


A high and sustained volume of incoming calls and emails have followed the airing of the Nightline story. SONSIEL  has received an overwhelming number of requests from nurses around the U.S. for N95 masks and other PPE. Recognizing that in our communities alone there is not enough supply of N95 masks in the country to cover our frontline, we are starting a GoFundMe campaign to raise funds to purchase N95 masks directly, outside of and donate them to the frontline healthcare staff across the country.

Hospitals and healthcare providers already are experiencing rationing and shortages. This is true even at the most-well-resourced hospitals in the Boston and New York regions and all over the country; it is prevalent in suburban and rural healthcare facilities as well. No facility is sufficiently equipped. Based on the amount of money raised in this GoFundMe campaign, we will prioritize getting N95 masks to the areas and facilities facing the most-dire shortages as we understand them.

While PPE production is ramping up nationally in response to COVID-19, there are significant delays in the supply chain.   SONSIEL has been working our networks finding creative viable sources for supplies that we can procure and distribute.  Time is of the essence; each day our frontline of nurses and doctors are without N95 masks and other PPE, they run a higher risk of becoming infected. If our frontline healthcare providers go down, our healthcare system will fail. This is a temporary effort, not meant to inhibit existing purchase contracts or supply systems, but to meet an urgent and vital need—survival of healthcare workers, life and death, who treat patients—until traditional manufacturing and existing supply chains can meet new demand levels required to combat COVID-19.

SONSIEL, through our SHARE initiative, is raising funds to directly purchase large quantities of PPE supplies to directly give to nurses and other healthcare professionals on the frontlines. Please donate what you can today.

We'd also like to share, SONSIEL has partnered with Boston Labs, Design & Development LLC, who is handling the sourcing and delivery, allowing SONSIEL to continue to focus on assisting and interfacing with hospitals urgently needing our help. 

Sincerely,
Rebecca Love, SONSIEL President, and Faith Ann Lawlor, SONSIEL COO, on behalf of the SONSIEL Board of Directors

Q: What type of personal protective equipment (PPE) is needed?
The type of equipment needed, commonly used by other entities and in other industries, includes masks, respirator masks (N95), eyewear (goggles, shields, visors), and gloves (latex, latex-tipped, protective). Non-hospital healthcare providers also may have available inventories of gowns, caps, or other items. 

Q: Can hospitals source directly from new vendors?
Yes, and they are working sourcing avenues. SONSIEL, as a grassroots effort, is working to be additive to traditional efforts using our energy, passion, and networks to locate untapped PPE vendors and their supplies.


Q: Who is SONSIEL?
SONSIEL is an international platform for Nurses to engage and advocate for Nursing’s role in influencing and directly impacting global health through innovation, and entrepreneurship. The organization is recognized as an Associate Member of The Conference of Non-Governmental Organizations (CoNGO) to the United Nations. This status enables SONSIEL members to participate on committees at the United Nations and have a worldwide impact.

Q: What is SHARE?
SHARE is an innovative, community-based solution created to help swiftly back-fill temporary PPE supply deficiency at hospitals and healthcare facilities. Our initial call to action, SHARE (Strengthen Healthcare Ability to Respond to Emergencies), was launched March 17, 2020, to quickly move PPE to the frontlines of care and to spur, at the grassroots level, an immediate community dialogue regarding readily available,  supplies of this urgently needed equipment.

Q: In addition to donating, how else can we help?
If you relate to a non-hospital healthcare organization or commercial business that has a supply of PPE in its day-to-day activities, please consider donating supplies. Organizations include construction, cleaning,  landscaping companies, nursing and medical schools, pharmaceutical labs, veterinarians, dentists, and simulation centers, even construction, cleaning, and landscaping companies.

Answer: SONSIEL has filed an application as a Tax-exempt organization under 501(c)(3) of the tax code and has received preliminary approval from the IRS.   Final approval has not been acquired as of this time, and is in "pending status". SONSEIL has asked for their application to be expedited, intends to continue to pursue such status, and believes it will qualify.  If you make a donation, either directly or through another entity supporting SONSIEL then SONSEIL will make every effort to obtain such approval and qualify your donation for tax deductibility.  SONSIEL understands we can accept such donations and the same will qualify for deductibility.   Here is what the IRS guidance currently states:

When the IRS approves a timely filed exemption application, exempt status is recognized back to the date the organization was created. Thus, while an application is pending, the organization can treat itself as exempt from federal income tax under section 501(c)(3).  For example, it must file Form 990 (instead of an income tax return) while its application is pending.  However, contributors to the organization do not have the advance assurance of deductibility because the organization’s exemption is pending.  If the organization ultimately qualifies for exemption for the period in which the contribution is made, the contribution will be tax-deductible by the donor.  Alternatively, if the organization ultimately does not qualify for the exemption, then the contribution will not be tax-deductible.

Donations 

  • Robert Muehlhof
    • $200 
    • 4 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $25 
    • 4 yrs
  • Nancy Nager
    • $25 
    • 4 yrs
  • Hannah Schonau-Taylor
    • $30 
    • 4 yrs
  • Madelyn Harrison
    • $100 
    • 4 yrs

Fundraising team: SONSIEL SHARE Program (7)

Faithann Lawlor
Organizer
Marblehead, MA
Faith Lawlor
Beneficiary
Rebecca Love
Team member
David Chang
Team member
Ellen Hassett
Team member
Jonathan Levine
Team member

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