With the current pandemic, millions of people are losing their income while still needing to find a way to pay for housing, utilities and provide for their families. Expenses are being scrutinized, particularly any recurring subscriptions and nonnecessities such as telecommunications, cable and internet, to find savings. This puts service providers in a difficult position: they are faced with either losing their customers to cheaper competitors, resulting in a 100% loss of revenue from those subscribers, or getting them to downgrade their plan and losing out on high profit margin addons.

We are living in unprecedented times, with one third of the world population on lock down because of the novel coronavirus, COVID-19. The Financial Post talks about India’s outsourcing industry buckling, with call centers scrambling to set up employees to work from home. And even as I write this, the effects are also being felt in North America, with over half of the US states in complete lockdown, as well as several Canadian provinces.

The support call center is under fire.

This month, I’d like to tell you about the nonprofit dedicated to providing support and advice to youth under the age of 25 in the UK, The Mix. While this blog series aims to discuss powerful nonprofits who use community to achieve their vision, mission and goals, this blog in particular will be a bit different. That’s because we actually got the opportunity to sit down and chat with the Engagement and Support Manager (now former), James Pickstone.

Nonprofits play an important role in elevating those with disadvantages, helping caretakers and raising awareness of important issues. In my ongoing blog series devoted to elevating the ones that make a difference in people’s lives, my focus this month is  Bipolar UK, a nonprofit dedicated to support those living with the condition of bipolar.

Cancer sucks. There’s no two ways about it. We all know someone who was or is afflicted with this complicated ailment. On a personal level, I need both hands to count all the people I know who have been afflicted by this terrible disease. Thankfully, many are still with us and are survivors, but some were not so lucky in their fight. Let this blog be a tribute to all of them.