$1,000,000 to be deployed to deliver more COVID-19 vaccines faster, with a focus on underserved communities.

PagerDuty.org launched its Time-Critical Health funding and partnership initiative in 2019 to help save lives by reaching people faster, with a focus on tech-forward solutions that improve outcomes for underserved populations. Since then, we have deployed close to $750,000 USD in funding to support open-source software for health workers that provide care in the world’s hardest-to-reach communities and support for a text-based emergency dispatch platform. COVID-19 brought an immediate threat to health and life, and has presented the huge challenge of vaccinating the world’s population. The only way to move past this crisis is to not leave anyone behind.

Understandably, there has been much written about the need for equal access. But the challenge isn’t just about access, it’s also about how to equitably allocate and distribute vaccines once they’re available and build the trust to ensure vaccine confidence. To mitigate health inequalities and ensure full recovery, COVID-19 vaccines need to reach underserved populations and regions globally through equitable allocation and efficient distribution. To achieve this, localized efforts need to be made to build trust and willingness with historically marginalized communities.

Funding Equitable Vaccine Access and Distribution

In response to the unprecedented and immediate time-critical health challenges of 2021, PagerDuty.org is providing $1,000,000 USD in support for equitable COVID-19 vaccine access and distribution. This includes $750,000 USD in cash grants, plus $250,000 USD in product credits, and additional technical volunteer support to nonprofits and social enterprises to help scale their time-sensitive work in vaccine information, distribution, and access.

PagerDuty.org is committed to identifying and funding organizations working on vaccine availability, access, and trust to ensure everyone has the opportunity and relevant information to be vaccinated—including and especially those who have historically been economically or socially marginalized. The goal of this funding round is to deliver more COVID-19 vaccines faster in the United States and globally—with a focus on underserved communities—and to help prepare communities and equip health systems to deploy and administer vaccines as they become globally available.

From temperature-controlled supply chain management and geographic allocations to appointment scheduling and data collection, vaccine distribution is incredibly complex. PagerDuty.org’s aim for this funding round is to help ensure real-time coordination and orchestration to simplify complexity. Each region has a nuanced vaccine rollout powered by disparate systems. Ensuring orchestration, supply and inventory management, and reliability across systems—and preventing and remediating extreme spikes in usage—is essential to successful distribution and access.

Additionally, there are still many locations that rely heavily on the success of innovative cold chain solutions, and some remote and rural areas may need distribution tools such as call centers or SMS appointments.

PagerDuty.org will deploy funding, product credits, and technical volunteer support to help scale time-sensitive work in vaccine information, distribution, and access. We are offering two paths to receive funding:

Path 1: For tech-centric organizations who can use PagerDuty in their work to expediently and inclusively increase COVID-19 vaccine distribution and access for individuals and communities globally.

Grant Criteria: Your organization or solution should meet the below criteria to be considered a successful grantee:

• Saves lives. Your organization is helping to save lives through COVID-19 vaccination distribution and access.
• Reaches people faster. Your organization is helping to expedite COVID-19 vaccine distribution or access for individuals in the United States or globally.
• Prioritize the most under-resourced populations. Your solution prioritizes the most under-resourced populations in the United States or globally.
• PagerDuty technology is part of your solution. You either use our product already or would like to leverage our technology in your efforts.
• Committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Your organization’s leadership or board includes individuals who identify as underrepresented or as a minority.

Examples of what we might fund specific to vaccine distribution and access:

• SaaS incident response and reliability across systems, especially systems under extreme spikes in usage due to the COVID-19 vaccination demand
• Vaccine preservation and delivery (e.g., cold chain IoT alerting)
• Supply and inventory management
• Appointment coordination
• Follow-up and vaccine effectiveness monitoring

Note: PagerDuty’s platform does not support public notification or data gathering.

Path 2: For organizations working to distribute timely, accurate vaccine information and ensure equitable, safe access in order to build trust, inclusion, and participation among marginalized communities in the United States and Canada.

Grant Criteria: Your organization or solution should meet the below criteria to be considered a successful grantee:

• Saves lives. Your organization is helping to save lives by reaching, including, or building trust and support for marginalized or under-resourced communities in the United States and Canada with COVID-19 vaccine information.
• Prioritizes the most under-resourced populations. Your solution prioritizes the most under-resourced populations in the United States or globally.
• Committed to diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice. Your organization’s leadership or board includes individuals who identify as underrepresented or as a minority.

Examples of what we might fund specific to equitable vaccine awareness and trust:

• Allocation and distribution (available doses and sites)
• Localized and personalized outreach and communication
• Non-technical alternatives to appointment coordination (text or call centers)
• Proximate and safe access (transportation, etc.)
• Follow-up and vaccine effectiveness monitoring (data collection and reporting)

Apply For a Grant From PagerDuty.org

If you’re a nonprofit, NGO, social welfare organization, government entity, or for-profit social enterprise, we encourage you to apply for a grant. We are accepting applications from April 22 to June 11, 2021. Applications will be accepted and support granted on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply as soon as you are ready.

Learn more about PagerDuty.org’s grants for equitable COVID-19 vaccine access & distribution, and apply here. Join our live Q&A session at 10 a.m. PT on May 3, 2021, to learn more about this funding round.