Perspective: COVID-19: How We’re Responding

Written By Melanie Cost

March 29, 2020 - In this suddenly difficult time, we hope very much that you and your loved ones are safe and in good health. We know the vital actions of physical distancing and self-quarantining have immediate and dire effects for many of the organizations and the communities that Jessie Ball duPont knew and loved. The drastic increases in unemployment and the volatility of the financial markets are not abstract realities for our grantees or their clients, and we want to help navigate this crisis.

  • We are prepared to expend our full planned 2020 grants budget in support of our grantees and their communities. Our team is connected and available to talk about immediate needs as well as future projects and programs.

  • We are reaching out to grantees with existing active programmatic grants that would be good candidates to convert into general operating support. We want to provide the flexibility and discretion to best serve your communities.

  • Even as COVID-19 has disrupted all our notions of space and social interaction, we are still committed to equity and placemaking as our strategic directions going forward. Now more than ever, as some members of our community experience drastic shifts in their access to employment, healthcare, food, connectivity, and education, equitable access to resources and opportunity is a focus for us. Placemaking too, remains a focus–with perhaps a virtual overlay–because we all now keenly feel how the lack of social interaction and gathering impoverishes our lives. Please keep the ideas and proposals flowing, especially as your communities experience the stresses of COVID-19.

  • We have already joined forces with our philanthropic partners in each of the Fund’s core communities (Wilmington, Delaware; the Northern Neck and Middle Peninsula of Virginia; Jacksonville, Florida; and Port St Joe, Florida) to direct funds to where they may be needed most. The funding we have provided is for direct services to those disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 crisis, including for food, shelter, lost wages, education, health care and child care. The equity implications of a crisis like this are immense. For more information on the COVID-19 Funds, contact your program officer.

  • We are committed to bringing you information and resources to help you be effective and efficient. This page is intended to provide some resources that help nonprofits navigate this current crisis and to begin planning for the aftermath. With information changing by the minute, we cannot create an exhaustive list of resources, but we will do our best to share those that we find helpful.

  • We have signed the Council on Foundations’s COVID-19 pledge, which informs some of the approach laid out above.

Things are shifting rapidly, and no community appears to be immune, yet every community will experience the crisis differently. We are doing our best to be nimble and responsive to the needs of our grantees and clients. We are committed to updating our approach as we learn more about the reality of the next few months.

Helpful Resources for Nonprofits

Melanie Cost
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