CSOs’ and/or NGOs’ behavioral traits as policy entrepreneurs, including being policy drafters as they function as queasy parliamentarians, have been widely recognized in the literature. Emerging traits less known to many include the fact that during crises where networked CSOs endeavored to ‘fix the state’ and ‘jump-start local governance’ during crises and disasters. COVID-19 offered a unique opportunity to see how uncommon behavioral traits are shared by Indonesian CSOs. This study is based on a case from the early stages of COVID-19, when the Pandemic was practically uncharted territory where no government was immune from making mistakes, including underestimating pandemic signals and delays, which reflect various cognitive biases of public leaders and policymakers. This paper examined a sub-national CSO network that demonstrated how civil society united and collectively complemented the government's lukewarm responses during the initial stage of COVID-19, from January until the end of 2020. The case demonstrates the imagination of CSO actors in their efforts to ‘fix the state’ and complement the governmental response. The ‘fixing the state’s approach includes strategically guiding state officials to make proper decisions and adopt mitigation measures, as well as building the capacity for whole-of-society coordination beyond the ‘whole-of-government’s state-centric approach, which proved ineffective in addressing a large-scale, multi-dimensional crisis.