b'COMING TOGETHER In March 2020, USC Shoah Foundation, along with manyREMOTE CAPTUREuniversities, institutions and businesses around the country,When USC recalled its students from study abroad closed its doors in response to the growing COVID-19programs in March 2020, a USC Shoah Foundation team pandemic. The disruption and unpredictability thatwas in Mexico City conducting Dimensions in Testimony affected the world also struck the Institute, as scheduled(DiT) interviews of Julio and Dolly Botton. The team interviews were cancelled, lectures and public toursmembers were supposed to return to Los Angeles and postponed and in-person outreach put on hold.Through it all, however, the vital work of USC Shoah Foundation continued. Staff adapted to working from home, reacting swiftly to changing conditions, creating technology and infrastructure to capture remote testimony, moving lectures and outreach online, devising creative solutions for fundraising, ensuring support for scholars and fellows and seeking ways to deploy IWitness and Holocaust survivors testimony globally in an effort to stand up for groupsJulio and Dolly Bottontargeted for their identities. Many of these changes had the effect of opening up Institute activities to a wider audience, as an increased reliance on virtual engagement meant geographic location was no longer a limiting factor for participation.Over the course of 2020, Board of Councilors and Next Generation Council members, Annual Fund donors and allies old and new stepped up to help ensure that stories of survival and hope, especially poignant over this past year, have continued to be collected, shared and integrated into educational lessons, serving as reminders of the strength of spirit of which we are both individually and collectively capable.Within this Annual Report are stories of the many pivots staff and volunteers have made to help the Institute to fulfill its mission as well as examples of the unwaveringthen fly the next day to Sweden to collect two more DiT support from generous donors in this unpredictable time.interviews. Of course, COVID-19 changed this plan The ingenuity, determination and fellowship formeddramatically.during this year will remain long after the pandemicFaced with an indefinite scheduling delay, especially subsides and the Institute once again opens its doors. troubling considering the months of planning and preparation that go into each DiT interview both for the interviewer and interviewee, USC Shoah Foundation staff had to rethink their testimony collection strategy.After a few months carefully monitoring the progress of COVID-19 and discussing options, the Institutes collections, media and ITS teams worked through the Dimensions in Testimony was developed in association with Illinois Holocaust Museumpossibilities of gathering interviews remotely to continue and Education Center, with technology by USC Institute for Creative Technologies, and concept by Conscience Display. the process of testimony collection as urgently as possible.2 2020 ANNUAL REPORT'