Giving Compass' Take:

• Here are five learnings from donors as they respond to COVID-19. Some of these lessons may be useful long-term practices. 

• What lessons are you learning about your charitable giving during this time? 

• Learn more about how to tailor funder responses to best support grassroots organizations. 

Across the globe, many organizations are adjusting to social distancing and remote working — philanthropy is no exception. To support our members during this time of adjustment, PACE worked with the Democracy Funders Network and Entrepreneurship Funders Network to host a call for philanthropic funders to share with one another the operational implications of COVID-19. The call focused on several topics including adjustments in operational work, how funders are supporting their grantees, changes that are being considered to grantmaking practices, and long-term shifts in both operations and grant-making.

As a field, we are seeing a dramatic need to restructure the way we operate to best support grantees and nonprofits in responding to this pandemic in the immediate term and set us up for success to continue to respond and prepare in the long-term.

Here are the 5 thematic takeaways that funders are learning as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic:

  1. Building community while physically apart presents challenges.
  2. The pandemic raises concerns about equity and highlights societal divides.
  3. There is no “one approach fits all” for supporting grantees through this pandemic.
  4. Remaining flexible and open to rapid response is outside of funders’ typical comfort zones.
  5.  Long-term shifts in grant-making and operations are up for consideration.

Read the full article about what funders are learning about COVID-19 response from Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE) at Medium.