Responding to Crisis: Community Foundation Adapts Programming

By April it became quite clear to the leadership at the Community Foundation of North Central Washington (CFNCW) that for the foreseeable future, it would not be business as usual, but rather “business unusual.”

As the region’s largest manager of charitable assets--offering grant funding and training opportunities for nonprofits, scholarships for students, and forging connections between donors and charitable causes--CFNCW knew it had an important role to play in helping this region survive the impact of the COVID-19 crisis. It had already decided to adapt its Helping Hands grants to provide emergency relief funding for groups impacted by COVID, but more had to be done. Just as CFNCW had stepped up during the wildfires of 2014 and 2015, creating special emergency funds and stewarding the generous donations from people far and wide to help rebuild and recover, this crisis required a response as well, but what?

The pandemic had impacted just about every facet of daily life and CFNCW’s response needed to be equally comprehensive. Food banks and housing support organizations were seeing giant spikes in demand while programs at arts and education based nonprofits were coming to a grinding halt. A response needed to both bolster nonprofits providing basic human services while doing as much as possible to make sure that the rest of the sector would not fade into oblivion.

After much deliberation and conversations with community leaders throughout the region, CFNCW announced a new suite of programming to respond to the crisis:

Helping Hands 2.0 – Funding Critical Needs Impacted by Covid

CFNCW has updated its original emergency grant program to focus squarely on nonprofit agencies who are providing critical, safety-net services to vulnerable populations impacted by Covid. Applicants can request as much as is needed, and approved requests are disbursed monthly.

Nonprofit Reemergence Grants – Funding for Nonprofits as they Reemerge in the Covid Environment

In lieu of the Regional Impact Grant, this is a temporary grant program to address recovery for nonprofits. Rather than being program-specific, these grants provide general operating support. Nonprofits can request up to 10% of their current op budget with a max request of $20,000. Grants will be awarded quarterly through July 2021.

NPI Virtual Learning – Nonprofit Reemergence Learning Series

This is a free learning series to help nonprofits plan and strategize for reemergence in their community. The series will cover several topics (leadership, financial strategy, fundraising, collaboration) via Zoom with guest presenters once a month from July – October.

Back to Basics – Schools helping Families in Need

CFNCW has heard heart-breaking stories from schools about families struggling with basic needs, making it next to impossible for students to focus on learning. The Back to Basics campaign will be a crowdsourcing campaign to raise funds for school districts throughout our region to help families purchase formula, diapers, clothing, food, and other basic needs. This campaign will run during the month of September.

As of July, almost $400,000 has been donated to CFNCW’s Helping Hands Fund for COVID Relief by hundreds of local donors, businesses and foundations. The “All in Washington” campaign matched $65,500 of those gifts, bringing the total to over $465,000! Several donors gifted the entirety of their federal stimulus checks, recognizing that many in this community needed those funds more than they did.

Beth Stipe, CFNCW’s Executive Director, states: “Our donors have blown us away with their generosity and their desire to help. We hope that this new grant-making approach for 2020-2021 will honor those donations and put this region on a road to recovery. We are always astounded by the generosity, resilience, and commitment that this community exhibits to find positive solutions to difficult problems. This might be one of our greatest challenges yet, but we think the people of North Central Washington are up for it!”

For more information about any of the programs above, or the work of the Community Foundation, visit www.cfncw.org.