Foundations are taking a wide variety of approaches to helping nonprofits cope with the economic fallout of the coronavirus, ranging from expressing concern to starting rapid-response funds.
The Gates Foundation has been among the most active.
In addition to its $100 million pledge to take on the virus directly through efforts to develop new treatments and vaccines, among other things, Gates is giving $5 million to Seattle-area public-health agencies struggling to cope with the pandemic.
The California-based Heising-Simons Foundation was one of the earliest to establish a coronavirus rapid-response fund to cover unexpected costs incurred by disruptions to nonprofits’ operations during the pandemic.
Applicants must be current grantees that have experienced unexpected costs due to the outbreak. The $400,000 fund will provide grants of up to $25,000 each.
“We will prioritize expenses incurred from large grantee-hosted conferences that have been canceled, rescheduled, or experienced low enrollment,” the foundation stated. “However, we also welcome requests related to other unexpected costs such as complying with CDC health and hygiene recommendations at the office, adopting new technology and technical assistance for virtual commuting, and other unanticipated activities or disruptions.”
‘Maximum Flexibility’
In a blog post, Hilary Pennington, the Ford Foundation’s executive vice president for programs, said the organization is giving its grantees “maximum flexibility” over Ford Foundation funds to address the crisis.
What foundations are telling grantees
“We want to provide you with maximum flexibility in how you use our funds in this time of extraordinary challenge. We know that ‘one size will not fit all’ so our program officers plan to reach out to you individually to work on the best ways in which we can support you.”
— Hilary Pennington, vice president of programs at the Ford Foundation
“We know that the shocks of this ‘new normal’ are severe and unanticipated for you — our grantee partners — as indeed they are for us all, professionally and personally,” Pennington wrote. “We are acutely aware that this global crisis will manifest differently in different contexts, and therefore requires a lot of customization in our responses.
Pennington said the foundation is now open to converting current project grants to general-support grants. Also, grants will not be rescinded if a grant-funded program or event is canceled or postponed. Ford also said it is open to changing the payment schedules for its grants.
What foundations are telling grantees
“We’re reaching out to existing grantees, and inviting them to contact us, to assess their needs and explore ways we can support them, including by providing greater flexibility with existing grant funds so organizations can be nimble in responding to this crisis.”
— Larry Kramer, president of the Hewlett Foundation
The Hewlett Foundation, in a statement to the Chronicle of Philanthropy issued March 11, said the group was first focused on the safety of its staff. The foundation is based in the San Francisco Bay Area, an early U.S. hotspot for the outbreak.
“We’re reaching out to existing grantees and inviting them to contact us, to assess their needs and explore ways we can support them, including by providing greater flexibility with existing grant funds so organizations can be nimble in responding to this crisis,” reads the statement from foundation president Larry Kramer. “Indeed, coping with this type of unanticipated event is an important part of why we tend to give unrestricted grants to many organizations that we support.”
(The Hewlett Foundation is a financial supporter of the Chronicle of Philanthropy.)
What foundations are telling grantees
“We have encouraged our grantees to prioritize their health and that of their communities and have asked them to keep us apprised of their plans as the situation evolves. We’ll respond to specific issues on a case-by-case basis.”
— Kenny Ma, spokesperson for the Knight Foundation
As the scale of the outbreak in the United States expanded rapidly last week, some grant makers, like the Knight Foundation, were focused on their own operational disruptions. Knight spokesman Kenny Ma said in a statement that the group was “focused on protecting the health of our staff, our community, and our grantees.”
“We have encouraged our grantees to prioritize their health and that of their communities and have asked them to keep us apprised of their plans as the situation evolves,” said Ma in an email. “We’ll respond to specific issues on a case-by-case basis.”
Community foundations are also responding. The Community Foundation Public Awareness Initiative has documented at least 13 foundations across the United States launching some sort of coronavirus-related fund, or have activated local disaster-relief funding plans.
Different Kind of Disaster
As of early Monday afternoon, there were no reported cases of Covid-19 in Berks County, Pa. While some other community foundations had already set up emergency response funds, the Berks County Community Foundation was in wait-and-see mode.
“Our trigger to start a fund is that an event has happened in the county,” says Kevin Murphy, president.
But he predicts the virus will spread across the county line. Tallies of cases in areas surrounding Berks were climbing. Although he hasn’t established a relief fund, Murphy has taken other actions, including putting an emergency-response plan in place that he drew up last fall.
Originally, the plan was developed to prepare the small regional grant maker for another kind of event: a mass killing. Following mass murders in El Paso and Dayton, Ohio, last summer, Murphy decided the foundation, which has never had to respond to a large natural disaster, needed to come up with a plan for helping the city if violence took hold.
The foundation updated all of its computer software and developed a business continuity plan so staff could keep in touch with one another, with grantees, and with local emergency responders and public agencies as staff members work from home.
In January, the foundation joined the American Red Cross, several churches, and other nonprofits in creating a Community Organizations Active in Disaster group. On Wednesday, the group will send a survey to local nonprofits to see which groups are experiencing steep drops in revenue or are being stretched thin as they provide more services.
In early April, the foundation will take part in a conference call with regional grant makers to compare notes. To prepare for the call, Murphy has drawn up an index of which funds housed at the foundation are restricted and which can be put to a variety of uses. That way, area donors will be better able to identify gaps in support and determine who is in the best position to make a grant.
What foundations are telling grantees
“We will prioritize expenses incurred from large grantee-hosted conferences that have been canceled, rescheduled, or experienced low enrollment. However, we also welcome requests related to other unexpected costs such as complying with CDC health and hygiene recommendations at the office, adopting new technology and technical assistance for virtual commuting, and other unanticipated activities or disruptions.”
— Heising-Simons Foundation
Until those assessments are made, Murphy has not yet sent to donors a list of nonprofits that are in special need due to fallout from the coronavirus.
“We encourage donors to support the organizations they already support,” he says. “At the moment, we don’t see a need to get in between our donors and nonprofits.”
However, the foundation has taken one concrete step already to help a struggling grantee. Recently, a low-six-figure grant was directed to a capital improvement project at a local museum. The construction project was a “nice to-do” project, not a necessity, so the foundation is allowing the museum to put it on hold and use the money instead to cover expected revenue shortfalls due to the coronavirus.
Says Murphy: “It was an easy thing to do.”
