Giving Compass' Take:

• The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted crisis funding practices that have proved extremely useful and effective during these unprecedented times.

• How can crisis funding improve? What funding practices have you found most successful in advancing relief efforts for organizations and individuals? 

• Read more about other practices you could adopt during this time. 

Like many trusts, foundations and philanthropists, we at NPC have had to alter our ‘normal’ approach to grant-making in our work supporting the Stone Family Foundation (SFF) with its UK response to Covid-19.

In response to the crisis, the SFF made several emergency grants to existing grantees, brought forward grant instalments to existing grantees, and removed grant restrictions to help them cover funding gaps and reach more people in need. The SFF also collaborated with other funders through the Coronavirus Mental Health Response Fund, coordinated by Mind, to get money to organisations they didn’t already support and who were in urgent need.

This response was made possible by a willingness to change ‘normal’ funding practices in light of unprecedented circumstances. However, now that the sector has begun to emerge from the initial coronavirus crisis, and as the sector considers building back better, it’s time for all funders to reflect on which of the changes they’ve made to their grant-making should remain permanent and which standard grant-making practices they should revert back to.

Crisis funding practices we should keep:

  • Unrestricted funding
  • Flexible and proportionate due diligence and reporting
  • Pooling resources and leveraging networks

Pre-crisis funding practices we should revert back to:

  • Rigorous (but proportionate) due diligence
  • Multi-year funding commitments
  • Visiting charities

Selecting the best of our pre and post-covid grant-making practices is vital for ensuring we support organisations as well as we can through the trying period charities are likely to face in the coming years. Funders must now think about which of their new funding practices they will keep and which of their old ones they need to bring back.

Read the full article about crisis funding practices by Matthew Mannix at NPC.