Coronavirus, charities and the response of Trusts and Foundations

These times are quite unsettling for all of us.  Many of the charities I work with are fighting hard to deliver their essential service to vulnerable people in different ways, against a backdrop of uncertain funding, a shortage of cash flow and with fewer staff and volunteers (who may be self-isolating, sick or looking after their children).

In the last two weeks, I’ve seen Trusts and Foundations:

• Change their grants strategy to ensure they can respond to the Coronavirus.  This means that charities waiting for their application to be considered have been asked to change their application or resubmit their original application at a later date.  Charities planning to submit an application to Trusts for funding not specifically Corona-virus related (such as for core costs or ongoing project costs) are now not able to apply.
• Contact their existing grantees to ‘relax’ their grant restrictions/requirements – meaning that they have greater flexibility in spending their current grants.  This is really good for charities with existing funding in place as it means that they can be a more flexible with their delivery, and eases the pressure on charities to live up to pre-virus delivery goals and outcomes.
• Not advertise at all how they are responding to the virus.  Charities are uncertain whether they should apply to Trusts for grants towards their regular activities – which they hope to be in a position to deliver after the virus) or their Coronavirus-related activities.

What this means in practical terms is that the charities I’m working with are greatly concerned about their ability to recover and deliver their programmes of work after the virus, especially as their otherwise planned fundraising activities (such as community-based fundraising or corporate events) will now not happen.

I think that there is a very real risk that many charities will ‘go under’ unless funders are prepared to relax their funding requirements further.  Yes – there is a pandemic and charities are responding to the needs of the service users as best as they can, given limited resources.  BUT this virus WILL go and charities WILL resume their usual activities – and need to be funded – by Trusts and Foundations – right now – to be able to do so.

The proof of this virus will not just be in the way that our communities come together (virtually) and support each other during the crisis, but how we ensure that we can continue to grow and develop in the days, weeks and months after the crisis.  When vulnerable people will still be vulnerable, homeless people will still need to be housed and older people will still experience isolation.  Trusts and Foundations play an important role in supporting this to happen – now and in the days to come.