By Danielle Yates, Senior Director of Marketing & Communications
Whenever our community has faced a major crisis, such as the current COVID-19 pandemic, The Community Foundation is our region’s philanthropic first responder to connect those in need with our caring donors who can help.
As our region’s community foundation, we see it as our responsibility to support our neighbors and communities during times of need. We fulfill this critical role in several ways:
As a trusted philanthropic partner to our donors and local funders, we can raise and mobilize funds quickly to serve our community.
Our history as a community convener and partner enables us to bring people and resources together to achieve greater impact through collective action.
Our deep community expertise and relationships with local nonprofits on the frontlines allows us to quickly identify and direct resources to where they are needed most.
Our nearly 50-year commitment to this region has helped shape our perspective and ability to address both the current and future needs of our community.
While Covid-19 is an unprecedented crisis, we have amassed considerable experience helping our community meet significant challenges and build critical capacity and resilience. In situations like this, our focus is to provide both immediate relief and ongoing support as our community works to recover and rebuild for the future.
This was evident in our approach to responding to several crises in the past two decades. For example, within 24 hours after the 9/11 attack on the Pentagon, we launched the Survivor’s Fund to direct the charitable response and caring spirit of some 12,000 donors. Housed at The Community Foundation, the fund raised more than $25 million to aid 1,051 victims and their families by providing access to both financial support and case management services needed to achieve long-term financial and emotional stability.
During the 2008 financial crisis, we collaborated with our donors to launch the Neighbors in Need Fund which raised $5 million to help families hit hardest by the economic crisis. This initiative helped meet the increase in demand for food, shelter, clothing, foreclosure prevention and healthcare services through grants to nonprofits across the region.
When gun violence erupted in tragedy at Navy Yard in 2011, we partnered with DC government and leveraged our local expertise to identify and fund nonprofits providing direct support to victims and families as well as addressing gun violence and mental health issues.
Today, we are ready to use the lessons we’ve learned from past challenges to help our region through this unprecedented health and economic crisis. You can stand with us and support this effort through the COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.