Community foundations have raised, committed, or granted more than $1 billion to support nonprofit coronavirus response efforts, according to a new report.
The Community Foundation Public Awareness Initiative has been tracking coronavirus-related grant making at nearly 600 community foundations. The actual amount of spending and commitments is likely higher because there are nearly 800 community foundations in the United States.
Of the $1 billion tracked by the group, an estimated $800 million has already been granted to nonprofits responding to the coronavirus. On top of that $1 billion, officials at the Community Foundation Public Awareness Initiative estimate at least another $1 billion has been granted from donor-advised funds managed by community foundations since the Covid-19 pandemic began. An earlier survey from the group found $821.9 million had been granted from community-foundation-managed DAF accounts in March and April alone, nearly 60 percent higher than in the same time period a year earlier.
Despite this deluge in grant making, nonprofits still have massive unmet demands for funding related to the pandemic, said Dave Scullin, CEO of Communities Foundation of Texas, which focuses on the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area.
His group has opened up a number of pandemic-related funds people can give to , such as a general relief fund and more targeted relief funds focused on small businesses, immigrants, and other areas of need. In all, it has funded $35 million in coronavirus-related grants. But it is still reviewing $65 million in unfunded requests.
“The needs are just continuing, as — sadly — the virus continues,” said Scullin. “I have no doubt we will have gaps over the course of the year.”
Mariam Noland, president of the Community Foundation for Southeast Michigan, which is focused on the Detroit metro area, said her organization is seeking long-term donors to fund nonprofit needs through the duration of what is expected to be a long period of economic slowdown. So far, her group has distributed about $20 million to local nonprofits to cover pandemic-related response efforts; $10 million of that came from its donor-advised funds. The group has four coronavirus relief funds to which one can donate, one for health and medical care, one for arts and cultural organizations, one for small minority businesses, and a general-purpose one.
“This is a crisis that doesn’t end, and we’re very interested in how we can connect with nonprofit organizations to think ahead on how they are going to have to change their business models,” said Noldan. “And we’re trying to figure out how we can find donors that will be in this for a long haul.”
Terry Mazany, senior vice president at the Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta, said his group has raised $25 million for pandemic-response efforts and has already granted $17 million to 320 nonprofits. The foundation is now dialing back its grant making temporarily to see how funding from the Cares Act is moving through the community. He said he’s not worried about donor fatigue affecting gifts to community foundations, at least not yet.
“Maybe that’s unquenchable optimism on my part,” said Mazany. “But we are getting into the giving season in the next few months, and the duration and magnitude of the pandemic will be very clear then.”
