How to best serve nonprofits during the COVID-19 pandemic
Please continue to support your nonprofit partners. These best practices have been crowdsourced from funders across the country. Consider:
- Converting programmatic investments into general operating funds.
- Increasing current grants or offering a second round to existing grantees.
- Relaxing requirements on current grants, such as eliminating reports and paperwork.
- Extending deadlines or deliverables on existing grants.
- Being open to changing payment schedules.
- Postponing or canceling site visits, especially for long time grantees.
- Making bridge loans or rapid response funding available.
- If significant income is based on a fundraiser such as an auction, conference or other events that have been canceled or likely to be canceled, consider how to help with lost income and sunk costs.
- Not holding nonprofit partners accountable for programmatic goals based on in-person gatherings.
- Checking in and lending your support - but don't overburden them! Partner with other funders to ask once!
- Last but not least, trust them. They know what needs to be done.
For additional ways to support nonprofits during the outbreak, contact these nonprofit associations.