
Image Courtesy of The Campaign Against Hunger
COVID-19 has presented the greatest threat to nonprofit survival in recent history. With no possibility for in-person fundraising events, skyrocketing expenditures to meet urgent needs, navigating transitions to remote work, reducing and furloughing staff, and providing frontline services in high risk environments, experts are predicting that as many as one-third of all nonprofits may be forced to close within a year.
“They were there when I needed them. I was really struggling with the finances of Mixteca, and I got the training from them on the Paycheck Protection Program, and it was so clear and so good that I applied, I did it and I got the money….They are kind, and lovely, and respectful and mindful of the cultural differences which we have.”
- Lorena Kourousias, Executive Director, Mixteca
To aid Brooklyn nonprofits confronting these extreme circumstances, we provided Foundation grantees with a host of free virtual workshops and individual and group coaching for leaders, attended by more than 400 participants:
- Fundraising in a Crisis
- Risk Management and Scenario Planning
- Paycheck Protection Program Application Clinic
- Paycheck Protection Program Loan Forgiveness Clinic
- Navigating Tough Times: Strategy and Decision Making for Leaders
- Leadership and Organizational Challenges

Image Courtesy of Diana Guerra/Make the Road New York
In addition to Immediate Response grants, the Fund distributed $873,000 in Sustainability Enhancement grants to provide unsolicited general operating support to 75 current foundation grantees across all of our portfolios to continue their critical work during the social and economic crisis brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And when the global Giving Tuesday campaign announced #GivingTuesdayNow, an emergency day of giving for COVID-19 relief on May 5, 2020, we activated our #BrooklynGives on Giving Tuesday giving platform and committed to matching up to $2,500 in donations to all Immediate Response grantees through June 2020. More than 147 organizations received a total of $363,831 from the Fund to match donations.