Giving Compass' Take:

• Vu Le implores donors everywhere to shed stinginess and increase their efforts towards containing the coronavirus.

• According to the author, the time is now to give as liberally as possible. Are you prepared to take her advice and pour your efforts into controlling the pandemic?

• Read a philanthropist's advice on containing COVID-19.

A lot of folks are hurting right now. Small business owners, people without sick leave, gig workers, folks without childcare, those who have no emergency savings, incarcerated people, people experiencing homelessness, disabled folks, kids who rely on school for food, those who are undocumented—all face daunting challenges with no foreseeable end date. Meanwhile, nonprofits face drastic reductions in revenues because of canceled events and other factors, which means we are less able to help during a time when we are most needed.

Amidst all this, I got a message from a colleague saying that a foundation just informed its grantees that due to its corpus being affected by the stock market, in part because of the Coronavirus, it may cut down on funding, possibly not even be able to disburse committed funds.

Foundations, I am begging you, if there was ever a time for you to increase your payout rate and get more money out the door, this is it. I know that you mean well. In your mind, you are thinking of the future. You think that if you spend beyond the 5% minimum payout rate as required by law, you will whittle down your corpus to nothing. You think of the future crises that humanity will face, and you want to be adequately resourced to handle them. You think that you are being prudent, saving up so that when society needs the funding the most, it is there.

If this pandemic is not the time for transformative action, then when is? Please increase your payout rate. By giving more now in the present, you increase the chance that there will be a future.

Read the full article about doubling your giving to avoid pandemic disaster by Vu Le at Nonprofit AF.