COVID-19 Funds: Where to Donate to Support Communities
In this new moment of growing uncertainty brought by the outbreak of COVID-19, we are seeing the intersection of health care, public health, and community care in this critical time of physical distancing, economic crisis, and social solidarity. We are seeing that health care, housing, social protections, water, electricity, and wireless internet for all is possible, when people are put ahead of profits for even a moment. Yet this will be only a temporary glimpse of what’s possible if philanthropy does not step up in this moment and in the months to come to fund both basic life necessities and the organizing and power-building in communities of color and low-income communities to ensure the sweeping and lasting changes that are necessary to keep all of us safe in the long term, and that are critical to burst open this moment of radical transformation.
This is a time of great possibility and of fear and real danger. We see that racist attacks against Chinese people and other API folks, from the federal government as well as people in communities, continue. We see the coming militarization, continued ICE arrests, and a major health threat to folks in detention, jails, and prisons. Check out this statement from Climate Justice Alliance connecting climate in/justice, quarantine and militarization, inmates, low-wage workers, racist attacks, and health care.
To support the mobilization of resources to communities of color on the front lines, Neighborhood Funders Group created and is maintaining a list of COVID-19 support funds and organizations to direct donations to (in the tabs above). These lists are focused on supporting organizing work that relates to NFG's mission and programming. It does not include general COVID-19 relief funds, although those are important. If you'd like to recommend an organization or project to include on this list of places to donate, please write to us at support@nfg.org.
We also know that many grantmakers are reaching out to their grantees and larger field of community organizations to ask what is needed from philanthropy right now, and to offer solidarity and support. A deep and heartfelt thank you to each of you. And, we know that funders and donors are facing the reality of a declining stock market and therefore declining endowments.
Philanthropy: this is the moment to give all you have — to scale up your giving to the need, not to scale back in fear of losing what you have. We must mobilize more dollars, not fewer, as communities and organizations face growing needs for safety and security for everyone in the form of health care, housing, food, and water — not military and police to enforce quarantines.
Where to Donate
-
Abolitionist Mutual Aid Fund for Incarcerated Comrades
Via Survived and Punished NY and the Inside/Outside Soap. - Asian Pacific Environmental Network — COVID-19 Emergency Community Stabilization Fund
- Bay Area COVID-19 Relief Application for Migrant Youth Community
Via East Oakland DREAMers. - Bay Area COVID-19 Relief Application for Migrant Youth Community
Via East Oakland DREAMers. - Brooklyn Shows Love Emergency Fund to Feed Brooklynites
A mutual aid project that provides food and other direct material aid to households experiencing food or other economic insecurity. - Black Trans Futures – COVID-19 Fund
- Black Voters Matter — Mutual Aid and Emergency Relief Self-Determination Fund
- California Coalition of Women Prisons — COVID-19 Emergency Aid
California Coalition of Women Prisons is actively fundraising to help with the emergency needs of incarcerated community members during the COVID crisis, making sure members inside have the necessary funds to keep lines of communication open and support for their commissary needs. - Chinese Progressive Association — COVID-19 Emergency Stabilization Fund
- COVID-19 Mutual Aid Fund for LGBTQI+ BIPOC Folks
- COVID-19 Response Fund for sex workers in DC area
No Justice No Pride, HIPS, and other #DecrimNow organizations are collaborating on a relief fund to DC Area and DMV-based sex workers impacted by the coronavirus outbreak. - COVID Crisis Fund for Feminist Activists
Urgent Action Fund for Women’s Human Rights establishes a fund to help deploy resources to activists on the frontlines of the COVID-19 outbreak. - Damayan Migrant Workers Organization
A Filipino migrant workers-based and led workers organization in NYC. Damayan has over 1,300 members who are mostly undocumented low wage workers-elderly caregivers, nannies, babysitters, housekeepers, and hotel and restaurant workers. Members are impacted by COVID-19; the majority do not have health insurance and can not access Medicaid because they are undocumented. - Disability Justice Culture Club
A mutual aid network led by five disabled queer and trans Black and Indigenous people of color resourcing disabled and/or unhoused people who need funds, supplies, and support in the Bay Area. - Drinking Gourd Farms
Black Phoenix Organizing Collective’s food sovereignty project, distributing food to low/no-income and houseless Black folks in the Phoenix area, and building gardens for fresh organic food in those people's homes and across the city. - Equality for Flatbush
E4F is a Black/POC-led, grassroots organization which does police accountability, affordable housing and anti-gentrification/anti-displacement organizing. E4F is providing emergency support, including eviction blockades and other organizing support, to people whose landlords are harassing them and/or trying to evict them illegally, especially those people whose employment was impacted by COVID and who are not covered by the eviction moratorium. - Emergency COVID-19 Relief for Sex Workers in New York
This relief fund will be providing monetary aid to sex workers in the New York City area who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. - Emergent Fund — People’s Bailout
Raising $500,000 through donors and partners to move to grassroots organizations and mutual aid groups working to support their communities and organize so that we come out on the other side of crisis in the world we deserve. - First Nations Development Institute — COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund
Directing emergency funds to Native nations and Native-led organizations. - Freedom for Immigrants — Bay Area Immigration Bond Fund
- Immune Compromised People in Need
A nationwide resource for immune compromised people to share their needs. - Indigenous Environmental Network
COVID-19 Emergency Mutual Aid Fund. - Jobs With Justice — Worker Solidarity Fund
- Liberated Capital: A Decolonizing Wealth Fund — Native American Community Response Fund (COVID-19)
- Love & Protect Emergency Fund
- Mano en Mano — Estamos Aquí Fund
- Minnesota Freedom Fund
- Movement Voter Project — Pandemic Community Fund
Movement Voter Project is supporting Local Partners with this new fund. - Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) COVID-19 Mutual Aid Fund
- Movimiento Cosecha — Undocumented Worker Fund
- Mutual Aid Funds
Organized by place. This list also offers a number of other resources and ways to support communities. - National Bail Out (Mama's Day Bail Out)
- National Day Laborer Organizing Network — Immigrant Worker Safety Net Fund
- National Domestic Workers Alliance — Coronavirus Care Fund
Immediate financial support for in-home care workers, nannies, and house cleaners. - Native Voices Rising
- NDN Collective
COVID-19 Response Project to distribute resources to frontline organizations, Tribes, and individuals who are providing essential services to Indigenous communities. - One Fair Wage — Support to Workers in Crisis
One Fair Wage is a campaign fighting to end unjust sub-minimum wages in America. - Philadelphia Community Bail Fund
- Pronet COVID-19 Emergency Fund for Undocumented Members
Pronet is mobilizing to create a coronavirus fund for members of partner groups, including Paisanos Unidos , the Southside Worker Center, Mariposas sin Fronteras, Tierra y Libertad, ScholarshipsA-Z and Trans Queer Pueblo in Arizona. - Protect the Peoples Emergency (PPE) Partnership Fund
- Radical Muslim Mutual Aid — COVID-19 Redistribution Fund
- Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation — COVID-19 Crisis Relief Fund
- SD Dream Coalition — Emergency Relief Fund for Immigrants in South Dakota
- Service Workers Mutual Aid Fund
This mutual aid fund was created by students from Mason, OH to support ALL service workers during these tough times (not just Ohioans). - Southern Black Girls and Women's Consortium — COVID-19 Relief for Southern Communities
- SWOP Seattle COVID-19 Relief Mini Grant
- Syracuse Immigrant and Refugee Defense Network & Workers Center of Central New York — Central New York COVID-19 Support For Undocumented Neighbors
- UndocuBlack Network
- UndocuFundSF
Support undocumented workers in San Francisco. - UNITE HERE Education and Support Fund
Organizations getting folks out of detention:
- Maine Youth Justice (MYJ)
- Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition (MPAC)
- Portland Outright
- Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement
- Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project
- Haitian Bridge Alliance
- Organization Latina Trans in Texas
- Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network
- Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee
- Pangea Legal Services
- Queer Detainee Empowerment Project
- Survived and Punished
- Freedom for Immigrants
- Santa Fe Dreamers Project
- Trans Queer Pueblo
- Directory of Immigration System Bail Funds
Response Funds
- Amplify Fund
Amplify Fund at NFG supports people of color and low-income communities to build power and influence decisions about the places where they live, in Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Puerto Rico, South Carolina, Tennessee, and California. Amplify Fund is continuing our core grantmaking program to distribute unrestricted general operating support to organizations, while stretching to provide additional resources to meet the extraordinary needs of this moment. For funders and donors with shared values and goals, we welcome you to join us to change the status quo in philanthropy by supporting the power of people of color and people with low-incomes to own and determine their futures. - Akonadi Foundation — So Love Can Win Rapid Response Fund
- Amalgamated Foundation & Amalgamated Bank — Frontline Workers Fund
- Arizona Community Foundation — Arizona Undocumented Workers Relief Fund
- Borealis Philanthropy’s Fund for Trans Generations, Destination Tomorrow’s TRANScend Community Impact Fund, and Third Wave Fund — COVID-19 Collective Fund for Trans Communities
- Brooklyn Community Foundation — COVID-19 Response Fund
- California Immigrant Resilience Fund
GCIR and other funding partners are aiding Californians impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. - East Bay Community Foundation — COVID-19: A Just East Bay Response Fund
- Families and Workers Fund
The Ford Foundation, Schmidt Futures, Open Society Foundations, The JPB Foundation, W.K. Kellogg Foundation, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Amalgamated Foundation, and others are partnering to create a rapid response fund dedicated to helping the workers, families, and communities most devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic. - Foundation for Louisiana — Louisiana Fund for COVID-19 Response
- Funders' Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO) — COVID-19 Youth Organizing Rapid Response Fund
- Grantmakers for Girls of Color — Love Is Healing Response Fund
- Greater New Orleans Foundation — Disaster Response and Restoration Fund
- Latino Community Foundation — Love Not Fear Fund
- Liberty Hill Foundation — COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund for Community Organizing
- Maine Initiatives — COVID-19 Community Care Fund
- Minnesota Council on Foundations — Minnesota Disaster Recovery Fund
- Missouri Foundation for Health Responds to COVID-19 Pandemic
A $15 million commitment statewide to ensure Missourians have the services and support they need to stay healthy. - MRG Foundation — Community Response Fund
- The Nellie Mae Education Foundation — Rapid Response: Racism is a Virus Too
Created to respond to the xenophobia and bias against Asian American communities resulting from COVID-19. - Seattle Foundation COVID-19 Response Fund
The COVID-19 Response Fund is rapidly deploying resources to community-based organizations that are supporting local workers and families most affected by the coronavirus crisis. - Seventh Generation Fund for Indigenous Peoples — Flicker Fund
Rapid response support for basic and urgent needs to Indigenous communities. - Schott Foundation — Loving Communities Response Fund
- Social Justice Fund — NW Crisis Fund
Emergency fund for grantees working to meet community needs and support mutual aid. Please add in comments this is for the "COVID-19 Crisis Fund." - Southern Partners Fund — Justice Fund for Disaster Relief and Renewal
- The Workers Lab — The Workers Fund
A COVID-19 rapid response fund to help workers who need support now. - Third Wave Fund — Mobilize Power Fund
- United Philanthropy Forum — Momentum Fund
Public Statements
- Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy (AAPIP) Statement on COVID-19
- CA Governor Gavin Newsom urged to act immediately to provide the lives of those inside CA prisons in this open letter from over 25 organizing groups
At this time, with the coronavirus threatening the health and lives of untold numbers of people, a current prison sentence in California could turn into a death sentence for many. - Climate Justice Alliance Demands an Immediate End to Trump's Xenophobia and Negligence
- Critical Resistance
Abolitionist measures, while often brushed off as drastic by mainstream voices, are now being lifted up as the most effective and practical steps to protect the health of people under the control of the prison industrial complex (PIC) during the spread of COVID-19. - LGBTQ and Immigrant Rights Organizations Demand ICE Release All People Currently Detained & Shut Down All Detention Centers in Light of Global Health Crisis
- More than 50 Advocacy Organizations Call on Mayor DeBlasio to Suspend Broken Windows Policing and Reduce NYPD Enforcement Actions as Coronavirus Spreads
- Movement 4 Black Lives (M4BL) National Demands for COVID-19
In this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Black people we fight to prepare and save ourselves and our communities. We know, like in all other crisis, that Black people will be hit hardest. We often suffer the worst because of the state’s failure to protect us and oftentimes the states targeting of us—like during Hurricane Katrina and many other atrocities. Everyday, we are still recovering from the tragic and unnecessary theft and loss of Black life. These demands are a product of collective work and reflect demands made by numerous other groups including the National Council, Communities United for Police Reform, Arch City Defenders, St. Louis Action, Prison Policy Initiative, Color of Change, Law for Black Lives, Coleman Advocates, Justice LA, Working Families Party, United We Dream, No Kids in Prison Campaign, and others. - Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) Mandate for Philanthropy
- Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Provides $50 Million to Support Those Facing Greatest Strain Under the COVID-19 Pandemic
Resources
- Black Voters Matter — COVID-19 Resources
- California Funders for Boys and Men of Color
CFBMoC is utilizing their web site and social media platforms as a resource for folks. - First Nations Development Institute — Tools & Resources to Take Action
- Four Freedoms Fund — COVID-19 Resources for Grantees and Movement Partners
Resources and tips, webinars, virtual trainings, essays, blog posts, data research, etc. that will be updated regularly. - Funders for LGBTQ Issues – LGBTQ Funding Resources in the COVID-19 Response
- Grantmakers Concerned with Immigrants and Refugees (GCIR)
- Grantmakers for Girls of Color — COVID-19 Related Emergency Resources and Guides for Our Communities
Where to donate to support communities. - Healing Justice Podcast and Resources
- New Economy Coalition — Community Responses to COVID-19, Just Transition Stories, & Community-Controlled Affordable Housing
- Mutual Aid Funds
Organized by place. This list also offers a number of other resources and ways to support communities.
Articles
- A Call for Social Solidarity: COVID-19 Response from NFG's Programs
By Neighborhood Funders Group - Pandemic Philanthropy: Moving From Relief to Power
By Dimple Abichandani, General Service Foundation - THE URGENCY TO MEET THE MOMENT: Lessons on Rapid Response Grant Making
By Marguerite Casey Foundation program officers Joe Burris, Janelle Choi, Liz Posey, and Tom Vásquez - Funding Racial Equity and Justice in the COVID-19 Era and Beyond
By Julia Travers, Inside Philanthropy - COVID-19: Using a Racial Justice Lens Now to Transform Our Future
By Lori Villarosa, Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity - Philanthropy in the Time of COVID-19
By Carmen Rojas. "What are we going to do to shift the balance of power & resources? ...Philanthropy’s response to the COVID-19 crisis, with rare exceptions, is lacking urgency and imagination." - On Being Black, Southern And Rural In The Time Of COVID-19
By Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, Highlander Center - How to Start Your Own Emergency Fund in the Time of COVID-19
By Inclusive Action for the City - We Will Remember
By Se-ah-dom Edmo, MRG Foundation - Protect Our Communities, Not My Wealth: Solidarity During Pandemic
By Iimay Ho, Resource Generation - COVID-19: What Borealis is Learning from Organizations on the Ground, and How Funders Can Respond
By Borealis Philanthropy - Funders, this is the rainy day you have been saving up for
By Vu Le, Nonprofit AF. "[Y]ou also need to immediately increase your payout rate. Whatever amount you’re giving out this year, double it. Double it and get it out the door fast and with as few grantwriting obstacles as possible."