Strategic Innovation in Philanthropic Institutions to Reduce Poverty Due to the Impact of COVID-19

Abstract

The impact of COVID-19 is one of the causes of current world inflation, in addition to the war in Ukraine and climate change. To overcome the world crisis, UNHCR collects zakat and alms funds from organizations and institutions. The global Muslim community then distributed zakat funds to 134,432 families in various countries. Indonesia is one of the recipients of zakat funds. In Indonesia, zakat and alms programs are managed by philanthropic institutions. When the pandemic case broke out, philanthropic institutions changed their strategies and programs to help the government reduce the coronavirus's transmission rate and poverty. The research method is qualitative, and the selection of informants uses a purposive method. The informant is the head of a philanthropic institution and was interviewed. The results of the interviews were analyzed with QSR N Vivo 12. This study identifies changes in philanthropic institutions' adaptation and innovation strategies during the pandemic. Of the two programs implemented before the pandemic, during the pandemic, there were eleven innovation programs. There are two strategic changes, namely changing organizations that can adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic to provide additional benefits for vulnerable and poor community groups. The expected outcome of the strategy is behavior change to follow health protocols, and funds are given to continue their MSMEs. The second way is to increase the number of program and activity targets, namely education, disaster, empowered villages, farmer awakening, food security, SMEs, public health, the role of women, sanitation, social religion, and street vendors.