The social-services playbook needs to be rewritten. Government has to find ways to cover essential needs with less money. The nonprofit agencies that shoulder much of the work of delivering critical social services for government have already seen their grants for contracts slashed. They must find a new way forward.

Entrepreneur Pierre Omidyar , eBay's founder and now a resident of Hawaii, has grasped this reality. The foundation he runs with his wife, Pam, has endowed a multi-tiered grants program with $50 million. Most of the money will be used to strengthen and grow resources for those struggling in the economic downturn.

Among the benefits of the Omidyar Ohana Fund is the onus it puts on nonprofits to innovate. This goal is a key to nonprofits' survivability in hard times.

A competitive matching-grant program, the Omidyar Innovation Fund, has set aside $6 million "aimed at spurring innovation in Hawaii's social sector," according to the announcement.

The details about how to apply will be out in about a month. Meanwhile, leaders in Isle social-service agencies need to brainstorm new ways to raise the matching grant and to deliver services effectively.

Cooperation should be key: Increasingly, in an era of shrinking government budgets, service providers must develop ways to combine forces — and reap the efficiencies that collaboration makes possible — to pursue overlapping missions.

The Hawaii Community Foundation, which is managing the Omidyar gift, reports that even before the innovation fund was created, some nonprofits here already have been meeting to discuss possible partnerships and joint projects.

That's encouraging, and now's the time to bring that energy to the fore. Across the nation, innovation has become the latest watchword for the nonprofit sector, with various organizations rewarding charities that come up with new ways of getting the most benefit from limited dollars.

Now the Omidyar s have brought that trend to Hawaii.

Necessity is the mother of invention. And there's no time like the present, when so many are so needy, to generate new ideas.

As innovations are tested, the rest of us should find ways to support this work with whatever resources we have to share.