We're organizing an engineering group to devise solutions to help against COVID-19.

We currently have 390+ people in our Slack. This includes ex-FANG, software developers and mechanical engineers. We also have PhDs, medical doctors, nurses and other clinicians.

The growth of our group was (is) extremely rapid. I expect to be quickly approaching Slack's horizon of 10,000 messages via the free plan.

Cutting off our messages will deprive us of important past insights and discussions. This will hamper our activities significantly.

Paying the standard plan's fee seems punitive in this situation. Indeed, even the non-profit rate implies monthly fees of $1,125 if we reach 500 members (we added hundreds today).

We are literally working to find ways to help frontline medical staff, who we are worried might be overwhelmed by COVID-19.

Given the time constraints, we are concentrated on products, not on funding.

Under the unique circumstances, can someone reach out to Slack corporate to ask for an exemption?

Our group is: helpfulengineering.slack.com