Second Grants Awarded from the Delaware COVID-19 Strategic Response Fund
Matches needed for $500,000 challenge grant from Longwood Foundation
In its second round of grants, the Delaware COVID-19 Strategic Response Fund today awarded $350,000 to 13 nonprofit organizations providing services to communities throughout the state.
The grants will address a broad range of community needs during the pandemic. Grantees are:
- First State Community Action Agency – $40,000 to provide for basic needs of low-income families statewide.
- Colonial Chapter of the Paralyzed Veterans of America – $5,000 to provide supplies for veterans with spinal cord injuries statewide.
- Green Beret Project – $10,000 to support at-risk youth and their families in Kent County.
- Ingleside Homes – $49,000 to pay for personal protective equipment, as well as staff and supplies for additional cleaning and individual meal delivery to residents.
- Jewish Family Services – $30,000 to provide remote counseling and support services statewide.
- La Esperanza – $18,000 for technology upgrades to better provide emergency services to the Latino community in Sussex County.
- Little Sisters of the Poor – $40,000 to fund personal protective equipment, cleaning and additional staff to control the virus and care for residents of the Newark facility.
- Milton Community Food Pantry – $1,000 to provide emergency food to families in Milton and surrounding communities.
- Nanticoke Senior Center – $32,000 to purchase, package and deliver food to seniors in the Seaford area.
- Project New Start – $25,000 to provide remote case management to individual reentering the community after incarceration statewide.
- Planned Parenthood of Delaware – $40,000 to fund personal protective equipment and staffing to provide reproductive health services statewide.
- TRIAD Addiction Recovery Services – $25,000 to provide remote counseling to individuals in recovery in greater Wilmington.
- YWCA – $35,000 to provide isolation for infected families at its Home-Life Management Center in Wilmington and provide remote counseling for survivors of sexual abuse and domestic violence.
In this second round, 119 applicants requested a total of $4.5 million from the COVID-19 Strategic Response Fund, which is housed at the Delaware Community Foundation (DCF).
The fund will award an additional $350,000 in grants next week. The goal is for the fund, which launched March 18, to provide grants for several months, said DCF President and CEO Stuart Comstock-Gay, who chairs the fund’s decision-making council.
The council is actively raising money to be able to respond to community needs, Comstock-Gay said.
“As the pandemic continues, the needs are growing and evolving,” Comstock-Gay said. “We are calling on the community to help local nonprofit organizations get food, shelter, medical care and other essential services directly to the people who need it most. We also must support our workforce, arts community and other sectors to restore our quality of life post-COVID-19.”
Double the Impact of Your Gift
The Longwood Foundation, which previously gave $1 million to the Strategic Response Fund, today awarded a $500,000 grant, contingent upon the DCF raising a matching $500,000 from the community.
Among the new contributions to the fund this week is a $50,000 contribution from M&T Bank. To date, the fund has received $2.3 million, with another $1.1 pledged.
To make a gift that qualifies for the match, give at delcf.org/covid19-fund or contact Joan Hoge-North.
About the Fund
Grants from the Strategic Response Fund will initially focus on urgent needs related to COVID-19, then expand over time to more structural and long-term needs. Target applicants are nonprofit organizations with deep roots in the community and a strong track record of serving people who are immediately and disproportionately suffering from the crisis.
Grantees are selected through a rigorous process that involves a diverse team of more than 50 community leaders representing all three counties and a range of areas of expertise. Final decisions are made by the COVID-19 Grants Council:
Stuart Comstock-Gay, president and CEO, DCF
Sheila Bravo, president, Delaware Alliance for Nonprofit Advancement (DANA), ex officio
Vernita Dorsey, WSFS
There du Pont, president, Longwood Foundation
Alan Levin, SoDel Concepts
Leslie Newman, retired CEO, Children & Families First
Enid Wallace-Simms, Delmarva Power
Amy Walls, Discover Bank
Applications are being accepted weekly on a rolling basis and grants will be awarded weekly for as long as funding is available and community needs exist related to COVID-19. Each week, applications received by noon on Monday will be reviewed, grantees will be selected Friday morning, and funds will be transferred Friday afternoon.
The application is open at delcf.org/covid-grants. The deadline for the next round of awards is Monday, April 13, at noon.
The fund, which is being directed by Philanthropy Delaware President Cynthia Pritchard, already includes generous gifts from the Longwood Foundation ($1.5 million), Welfare Foundation ($200,000), Laffey McHugh ($100,000), Discover ($75,000), DCF ($75,000), WSFS Bank ($25,000) and others. The DCF also has waived all administrative fees for this fund, so that 100 percent of the funds are going to organizations helping people in need.
The Delaware COVID-19 Strategic Response Fund is part of the Delaware COVID-19 Emergency Response Initiative, a nonprofit collaborative response to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic. The DCF, DANA, PD and United Way of Delaware are partnering to coordinate charitable resources to maximize impact statewide during this crisis.
To contribute, visit delcf.org/covid19-fund.