COVID-19 Response Fund supports local nonprofits

Chicago Community Trust and United Way have partnered to create the Chicago Community COVID Response Fund. Photo courtesy of Chicago Community Trust.
Chicago Community Trust and United Way have partnered to create the Chicago Community COVID Response Fund. Photo courtesy of Chicago Community Trust.

COVID-19 Response Fund supports local nonprofits

BY TIA CAROL JONES

Chicago Community Trust has partnered with United Way Chicago to create the Chicago Community COVID-19 Response Fund. Its purpose is to provide local non-profit organizations with money to help the people in the communities they serve and increase their capacity to continue to serve during COVID-19.

To date, more than $8.8 million in funds have been given to 140 organizations.

Dr. Helene Gayle, president and CEO of Chicago Community Trust, said the idea to set up the fund came from looking at the way community foundations across the nation have been responding to COVID-19.

“We decided that it would be a great opportunity to join forces and really respond to the incredible needs that exist out there by being able to raise resources for a special fund, and then get those dollars out to the communities that are most targeted,” she said.

Gayle added that this is a twin crisis, a health crisis and an economic crisis.

“So, people are getting impacted, both because there are many people in the communities that we work with that have been directly impacted by the virus. But, we also know that because of the economic slowdown, there are many people who are being economically crippled.”

Gayle said it was important to make sure people have basic support for food and shelter and cash to pay bills – rent or utilities.

“We want to make sure that we’re getting dollars out to the communities that are most hard hit, most vulnerable,” she said. “Where can we make the biggest difference in this time of crisis for communities that we know are bearing a disproportionate brunt of this epidemic? We know we’ve got to go where the need is greatest.”

Gayle said the partnership with United Way Chicago happened because of its strength with the corporate community and the deep relationships at the community level.

Sean Garrett, CEO and president of United Way of Metro Chicago, said the organization wanted to partner with Chicago Community Trust because they saw very quickly that the community was going to see potential economic impact.

“It became very clear that the communities that we work in every single day were communities that were going to be disproportionately impacted. And, so we wanted to [do] anything we could to help organizations get through to help the incredible workers that are serving throughout our region to be able to have the resources they need to do their job. This just seemed like the right thing for us to continue the work we were doing already, but to do it in this time of crisis,” he said.

Garrett said the second round of the funding included more support for community health clinics, due to the increase in their demand during the virus epidemic. He said the funding is adjusting based on the needs of the communities.

“When you look at it, nonprofits rely on donors to give them money, they rely on events and they rely on volunteers. And today, it’s really hard to have events, every event that would typically take place has been cancelled. The resources that are raised at those events are no longer happening. And yet, they’re facing an increase in demand for their services,” he said.

Angela Hurlock, executive director of Claretian Associates, said the funds the organizations received will help families that were already on the verge of making ends meet. They have been providing gift cards to families and food through their food pantry.

“This helps us to be able to assist those families and continuing to make ends meet. Those families that may not be unemployed but are already underemployed. They now may be losing employment or getting laid off,” she said. “This allows us to be able to help the family to double down to be able to provide foods, to be able to provide making sure that housing remains stable and sustainable.”

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