The lasting impact of the coronavirus will change philanthropy in profound ways we can’t yet fully understand. While all of us hope for the best, health care and economic experts predict things will get worse before they get better. As a result, many of us are experiencing stress, anxiety, and depression.
But we can’t allow that to paralyze us with fear. There is much we can do to make a long-lasting difference.
Our top priority now must be the safety of everyone who works at the organizations we support as well as of the people in the communities where we make grants. The many new rapid-response funds that foundations are setting up will help. Many foundations are also sending letters and emails to grantees providing flexibility from an array of requirements, which will also help grantees.
But as we look ahead to what’s next, it’s essential to focus on the key challenges that have been brought to the fore by this crisis — the weaknesses in our democratic institutions. Three issues are especially urgent for grant makers to consider: the impact of the coronavirus on voting in the 2020 election cycle, the 2020 census, and the ensuing redistricting efforts in 2021.
It will be challenging to keep our focus on these matters as we face growing demands to serve basic needs, but we must remember that protecting our democracy during periods of crisis like now is different than responding to other philanthropic requests.
If our democratic institutions falter, so too does accountability. If only some people participate in elections, the census, and redistricting, it will have a profound impact on fairness for years to come and will be most sharply felt by those who have the least clout in our society, including those most severely affected by the pandemic, low-income families, and people of color. Ensuring that democratic institutions work well is essential to our ability to carry out philanthropic missions of all kinds and, while always important, may prove fundamental to protecting our democracy today.
The double whammy of a presidential election year and the once-in-a-decade census count poses a huge challenge for the organizations that focus on bolstering our democracy — and that was true even before Covid-19 hit.
In the run-up to the census, we saw extraordinary efforts from foundations to ensure we get a fair and accurate count. . But even though tens of millions of dollars were already pledged to advancing the census’s work, we need even more now.
Of course, it’s not just government funding that is at stake. The census also determines political representation, research, local planning, business decisions, and how power is distributed throughout the country. The importance of accurate census data for planning and policy making has become even clearer during this national health emergency.
Canvassing, house parties, and in-person events were the main outreach approaches nonprofits had been using to encourage people to fill out census forms. Places of worship, libraries, schools, and community centers were the main locations for events as well as being places where tablets and computers were to be available for people to fill out the census. Those venues are now shutting down and these approaches impossible to pursue.
This requires a pivot in the way that nonprofits — trusted messengers — provide the rationale to fill out the census along with the encouragement, access to computers and broadband, and assistance in completing census forms. The Covid-19 situation is particularly a problem for households that are distrustful of government or do not speak English or do not have access to the internet.
Creative Responses
The response from nonprofits thus far has been remarkable and inspiring, demonstrating nimbleness and recognition of the need.
Staff members at these organizations are quickly adjusting to working remotely from their homes, setting up new ways of communicating with fellow workers on the fly. At the same time, they are addressing the needs of workers and their families, especially those who are symptomatic.
And when it comes to the census, they are quickly shifting to noncontact approaches to outreach, including phone banks, text campaigns, online meetings, videos, and ads. In other words, digital organizing. Admittedly, nonprofits that are already skilled in digital organizing are in a good position. But many others are not and will need help. Regions of the U.S. without access to broadband or reliable cell coverage have even more need.
Pennsylvania Voice’s Keystone Counts coalition has rapidly expanded its text-messaging efforts in targeted counties. Fair Count is expanding its digital and communications presence in rural Georgia with an emphasis on reaching African Americans. CASA is amping up its digital ads, and in Virginia, it is making more use of Facebook Live. Mi Familia Vota has suggested a phone bank on Telemundo and Univision where people can call in with their census questions.
At the national level, grant makers have been talking about what’s needed most and are encouraging donors to pay for the tools and other resources that local groups need now to send text messages to encourage people to fill out the forms, and other efforts like running phone banks and virtual town halls.
We also need to double down on the support systems to help state and local groups beef up their digital skills. Grant makers last year financed a Census Digital University to provide much-needed training and assistance on digital organizing. Now we need to move fast to expand that broadly. And it’s essential that we provide additional support for digital and nondigital ads that are branded by state and local groups in multiple languages.
Grant makers can do much to help nonprofits make the transition to virtual communications and digital organizing strategies. This is both an immediate and a longer-term need.
Elections and Redistricting
Also under stress — and a key issue for foundations — are the forthcoming elections and the redistricting process that will happen after the census results are in.
Many of the nonprofits working on the census are the same ones that will also work on elections and redistricting. That’s why as foundations we need to think about our support for all these democracy-related issues as connected. We must do all we can to make sure that every citizen is able to vote this fall and that communities’ voices are heard when redistricting happens.
Grant makers and nonprofits must together issue a clarion call to ensure that we make changes to the election systems so that the remaining primaries and the fall election occur without creating undue risk to public health or disenfranchising any eligible voter. More than 200 civil-rights and other organizations have joined together to promote Covid-19 changes. Greater access to online voter registration, voting by mail, and sensible changes at polling locations are needed to protect voters.
While philanthropy responds to these immediate needs, there are some longer-term issues that will need to be addressed. First, nonprofits are already worried about the funding situation in 2021 and 2022. They see the stock market volatility and declines as a harbinger of foundation-funding cutbacks in months to come.
It would be shortsighted to cut democracy funding, particularly since the total amount is already a relatively small portion of philanthropic giving. Recent consistent funding has resulted in significant progress over the past few years on election-related work, census, redistricting, government accountability, and more. Government and elected officials will be making many critical decisions over the coming months and years that will have a long-term impact on the most vulnerable in our communities. The work of organizations engaged in ensuring our democracy is functioning well is not simply more critical than ever before; it is essential.
If funding reductions become inevitable, it would be wise for foundations to be fully transparent with grantees as early as possible so that proper planning can be instituted.
What’s more, this Covid-19 experience should be a stark reminder to all who fund advocacy work that organizing today requires a combination of offline and online strategies. Digital operations can no longer be considered a separate component of anything nonprofits do. They must be integrated into all facets of a nonprofit’s activities, particularly in interacting with the people they serve.
Alarming Digital Divide
Covid-19 has also exposed in sharp relief the dangerous digital divide in rural communities, including for Indian reservations. Many students lack the computers that allow students at urban public schools to keep learning. Broadband internet is no longer a luxury but as basic as access to water and electricity.
Foundation funding will need to reflect this new reality. There will be a temptation to believe that a single tool or one-time funding will solve the problem. In fact, digital organizing is as hard as offline organizing, and it requires sustained funding and nurturing.
Grant makers may be able to collaborate with technology, internet, and cellphone companies to develop a comprehensive plan to ensure that everyone has a lifeline to the digital world.
Even as Congress is poised to inject the largest-ever federal stimulus into the economy, there will be a difficult and long-lasting worldwide economic impact from this pandemic. It will likely be most profound for those with modest means, including low-wage workers and those without jobs, and it may also change the landscape for small businesses for years to come.
Foundations will need carefully considered strategic responses to this situation. Throughout this crisis, calm, consistent leadership will be needed. Philanthropic organizations, in partnership with nonprofits working on the front lines, are well suited to provide such leadership.
