In late March of 2020, Rachael L. Lubin began seeing more and more people on her social media platforms lose their jobs, their incomes, and become fearful of their immediate financial futures. She decided that as long as she was still fully employed— and as long as the COVID-19 crisis kept so many people out of work— she would donate her Monday paycheck to those in need. Using the song "Today 4 U" from the Broadway musical Rent, she posted a video on social media asking for people to contact her if they had an urgent need for a small, one-time gift.
The following week, Rachael noticed that a tremendous amount of nannies had been using their paid time off and sick leave to adhere to social distancing rules. She then noticed many were losing their jobs as this paid leave ran out. It was then that she realized this crisis was going to affect nannies in a huge way and for the foreseeable future. That day, she geared the peer-to-peer giving towards the whole nanny community. Amazingly, after her March 30th posting, many other nannies were inspired by her posts and joined her in donating a portion of their weekly income to other out-of-work nannies. By this time, other amazing humans were noticing the atruistic efforts Rachael was putting forth. It didn’t take long for her friend Austin Macfarlane to reach out. Within 48 hours they had assembled a core team comprised of powerhouse women in the nanny industry, and a generous group of pro bono professional advisors, attorneys, and a branding specialist.
The Nanny Relief Fund came to full existence with the love and support of this group of “doers” and the team decided to move this effort forward as a non-profit. The non-profit intends to support the nanny community through this crisis and will stand ready and able to support the community in any crisis to come.