Foundations pledge support for COVID-19 relief – update (06/17/2020)

With cases of COVID-19 in the United States showing signs of leveling off and local and state economies beginning to open up, private foundations continue to provide funding to meet the immediate needs of individuals and vulnerable populations impacted by the virus. Here's a roundup of grants from the last few days: 

Rasmuson Foundation, Anchorage, AK | $997,500

The Rasmuson Foundation has announced grants totaling $997,500 from its COVID-19 Response Fund, including $250,000 to match municipalities' allocation of federal relief funds to arts and culture organizations; $75,000 to help coordinate the delivery of personal protective equipment in the state; $50,000 to the Alaska Coalition for Housing and Homelessness; up to $50,000 through a partnership with the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development to purchase iPads for students in rural communities; and $100,000 in support of child care for children of first responders and healthcare workers.

Eisner Foundation, Los Angeles, CA | $1.6 million

The Eisner Foundation has announced that it plans to award grants totaling $785,000 in the second quarter of 2020 to help half a dozen nonprofits develop new procedures in response to the spread of COVID-19. The commitment is in addition to the $841,000 the foundation recently granted through its Rapid Response Fund, which it launched in April to help address the problem of social isolation during the COVID-19 public health emergency.

Daniels Fund, Denver, CO | $5 million

The Daniels Fund has announced commitments totaling more than $5 million in support of COVID-19 response efforts — including a first round of grants totaling $1.8 million to twenty-six nonprofits and an additional round of grants totaling $3.4 million approved by the board in late May. The grants will support efforts in Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming to address basic needs, support employment and job training programs, strengthen child care, provide technology and Internet access for remote K-12 education, and address social isolation among seniors, youth, and individuals in addiction treatment or recovery.

Lewis Prize for Music, Coral Gables, FL | $1.25 million

The Lewis Prize for Music has announced grants totaling $1.25 million from the COVID-19 Community Response Fund it launched in April in support of youth development organizations working to help at-risk youth. Grants of between $25,000 and $50,000 were awarded to thirty-two small nonprofits, including 317 Main Community Music Center (Yarmouth, Maine), Beyond the Bars (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), the Choir School of Delaware (Wilmington, Delaware), Memphis Music Initiative (Memphis, Tennessee), the Heartbeat Music Project (Crownpoint, New Mexico), and Youth Radio (Oakland, California).

A Better Chicago and Finnegan Family Foundation, Chicago, IL | $1.625 million

Venture philanthropy fund A Better Chicago has announced grants totaling $325,000 to ten organizations serving low-income youth and families, bringing to $1.5 million the total awarded by the organization through its Emergency Relief Fund. Recipients include Intrinsic Schools, Children's Home and Aid, and My Block My Hood My City. The organization and the Finnegan Family Foundation also are providing $125,000 to World Central Kitchen to help address food insecurity among Chicago Public School students and their families during the COVID public health emergency.

Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation, Chicago, IL | $200,000 

The Gaylord and Dorothy Donnelley Foundation has announced general operating grants totaling $200,000 in support of arts and cultural organizations through its Emergency Relief Fund. Grants of between $5,000 and $10,000 were awarded to organizations with budgets under $1 million — nineteen in the Chicago region and thirteen in the Lowcountry of South Carolina — including the Mitchell Museum of the American Indian, the Chinese American Museum of Chicago, the Cecil Williams Civil Rights Museum, and the Morris Center for Lowcountry Heritage.  

W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Battle Creek, MI; Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Seattle, WA | $1 million

The Women's Funding Network has announced the launch of a Response, Recovery, and Resilience Collaborative Fund to help women's funds continue to support women and girls impacted by the COVID pandemic and systemic racism and injustice. Seeded with nearly $1 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, and other donors, the fund also will convene thought leaders, partners, and frontline community groups to help identify and support bold strategies for strengthening gender equity and justice philanthropy as an effective tool for social change.  

Kresge Foundation, Troy, MI | $2.4 million

The Kresge Foundation has announced a third round of grants totaling $1.6 million in support of COVID-19 relief efforts. Recipients include the Association of Chamber of Commerce Foundation in Alexandria, Virginia ($360,000); Citizen Detroit ($75,000); DAISA Enterprises in South Hadley, Massachusetts ($550,000); and the Foundation for Louisiana ($120,000). In addition, the foundation announced supplemental financial support in the form of grant amendments totaling nearly $780,000, bringing its COVID-related grantmaking since April to $9.2 million. 

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Flint, MI | $1.2 million

The Charles Stewart Mott Foundation has announced a pledge of $1.2 million for the provision of two million face masks to the Food Bank of Eastern Michigan. The food bank will distribute the masks to nonprofits, Help Centers, and the City of Flint, which will redistribute them to small businesses and faith-based organizations. 

Grantmakers for Girls of Color, New York, NY | $620,000 

Grantmakers for Girls of Color has announced a first round of grants totaling $620,000 to thirty-four nonprofits from its Love is Healing COVID-19 Response Fund. The grants will support preventative or responsive health strategies, educational and economic initiatives, and interventions in support of institutionalized youth and survivors. Recipients include Assata's Daughters, GirlForward, Indigenous Vision, the Sadie Nash Leadership Project, and Young Women Freedom Center.

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York, NY | $10 million

The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation has announced emergency grants totaling $10 million to six regional arts organizations — Arts Midwest, the Mid-America Arts Alliance, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the New England Foundation for the Arts, South Arts, and the Western States Arts Federation — to launch a United States Regional Arts Resilience Fund in support of small and midsize arts organizations. With the goal of mitigating financial impacts on the arts sector related to COVID-19, the fund will support nonprofits across all artistic disciplines regarded by their peers as having statewide, regional, or national impact, with priority given to those most at risk, including historically underresourced organizations and those serving underresourced populations, communities, and/or disciplines. 

Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York, NY; Flamboyan Arts Fund, San Juan, PR | $1 million

The Flamboyan Arts Fund and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation have announced grants totaling $1 million from an Emergency Relief Fund launched in April in support of arts organizations in Puerto Rico. Eighty-nine organizations were awarded grants of between $5,000 and $20,000 to help cover staff salaries, rent, and other basic needs and support the creation or expansion of virtual arts programming. With additional support from Lin-Manuel Miranda and his family and in partnership with Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico and Km 0.2, the fund also awarded grants of $600 each to four hundred and fifty individual artists.

St. David's Foundation, Austin, TX | $3.5 million

St. David's Foundation has announced a first round of grants totaling $3.5 million through its COVID-19 Recovery Fund to seventy-seven nonprofits in Central Texas working to address basic needs, the social determinants of health, and healthcare access for families in the region impacted by COVID-19. Grant recipients include Breakthrough Central Texas, Casa Marianella, Communities of Color United for Racial Justice (Allgo), Farmshare Austin, Mobile Loaves & Fishes, the Survive2Thrive Foundation, and the Williamson County & Cities Health District.

For more information about the philanthropic response to the coronavirus, including a funding summary, a list of emergency resources for individuals and small businesses, and a list of funds established in response to the pandemic, visit Candid's COVID-19 popup page.

(Photo credit: Mobile Loaves & Fishes)