Zhejiang Province achieved one of the best records in containing the COVID‐19 pandemic in China. What lessons can the world learn from it? What roles do community‐based organizations play in this success story? Based on more than 100 interviews during and after the outbreak in Zhejiang, this article provides a road map of how community‐based organizations were involved in the three distinct stages of Zhejiang's response to COVID‐19. The authors recommend that public sector leaders (1) strategically leverage the strengths of community‐based organizations at multiple stages of the COVID‐19 response; (2) incentivize volunteers to participate in epidemic prevention and control; (3) provide data infrastructure and digital tracking platforms; and (4) build trust and long‐term capacity of community‐based organizations.