How did Civil Society Organizations (CSOs) globally address the needs caused by the COVID-19 pandemic? In this study, we examine the roles CSOs played during the first 18 months of the pandemic, their main challenges, and how the pandemic changed CSOs’ roles in society across 39 countries and economies. Using inductive thematic analysis analyzing responses from global philanthropy experts in two consecutive studies (2020 and 2021), we find that CSOs played fourteen roles, of which we discuss the six most mentioned: providing social assistance; responding to health care needs; coordinating and collaborating with government and business; mobilizing funds to address societal needs; raising awareness and combating misinformation; and advocating. Challenges for CSOs included reduced revenue and difficulty reaching beneficiaries. We found these challenges led to innovative ways of operating and new arrangements between civil societies and governments, which may have opened opportunities for a more active role of CSOs.

全球民间社会组织 (CSO) 如何满足 COVID-19 大流行带来的需求？在这项研究中，我们研究了公民社会组织在大流行的前 18 个月中所发挥的作用、其主要挑战，以及大流行如何改变了 39 个国家和经济体的公民社会组织在社会中的角色。通过归纳主题分析，分析全球慈善专家在连续两项研究（2020 年和 2021 年）中的反应，我们发现公民社会组织发挥了十四种作用，其中我们讨论了最常提到的六种作用：提供社会援助；满足医疗保健需求；与政府和企业协调与合作；筹集资金以满足社会需求；提高认识并打击错误信息；并倡导。公民社会组织面临的挑战包括收入减少和难以接触到受益人。