COVID-19: How you can help and how we're responding

Our state and country are facing an incredibly challenging situation that calls on all of us to rise to the occasion.

We are grateful for the outpouring of desire to help from our fundholders, donors, board members and partners in philanthropy in the wake of the pandemic. We're prepared to offer guidance on how you may be able to help and provide an update on our operations.

How you can help

During this challenging time, we lift up our nonprofit partners, as they face increasing needs and loss of revenue. Their work is critical right now, and so is your support.

Here are a few ways you can help:

Nonprofits serving community health needs will be called upon to respond to this pandemic and need your support for heightened expenses, like additional staffing costs, longer operating hours and specific equipment.
Food banks and food delivery programs, particularly those serving the elderly, provide critical assistance that is needed daily. Because many of these organizations rely on volunteers, their resources will be stretched during this time when volunteer participation is in sharp decline.
Organizations are experiencing severe revenue losses due to the cancellation of programs, events and activities that they rely upon to raise funds. Nonprofits will need to make up those losses in order to sustain.
When making these donations, avoid restricting the gift for a specific purpose. We are hearing from the nonprofit sector in all areas of service that what is needed most right now is funding for general operating support for expenses including staff pay, technology to facilitate teleworking, cleaning supplies and other equipment to promote safety and reduce risk. An unrestricted contribution to any organization is helpful.
Contact a member of our team for more.

Additionally, we are reviewing all of the ways that we engage with and support the nonprofit community to ensure that we are doing so with thoughtful consideration. We are extending reporting deadlines for our grantee partners, reaching out to our partners and encouraging our affiliates and fundholders to give general operating support.

Because of our track record in responding to disasters in the state, we have received some questions about the NCCF Disaster Relief Fund.

We've seen just how impactful the Disaster Relief Fund has been during hurricane disasters in our state. However, this crisis is fundamentally different, which means that our response will also be different. There is just no one-size-fits-all model in disaster relief and recovery.

Through our conversations with partners in philanthropy and in the nonprofit and government sectors, we have determined that our Disaster Relief Fund is not the best fit to respond to this public health crisis, so we are not planning to activate it.

As our world changes rapidly, we are walking through this together and approaching all decision making thoughtfully. We're continuing to monitor the situation and working to ensure we're standing in support of our nonprofit partners across the state through this crisis. We will keep you informed of any new strategies that emerge.

Our operations

We shifted our statewide staff to remote work and closed our offices in response to guidance issued by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the North Carolina Department of Health & Human Services.

While our staff is operating remotely, our work for the community continues and staff is available to you. You can find all of our contact information here.

Our team is reaching out to those with whom we currently have meetings scheduled in order to plan accordingly.

Grantmaking continues! We're ready to assist you in any grants or gifts you may wish to make in response to the crisis our communities are facing.

We are ever-grateful for your generosity and your steadfast commitment to helping our communities in their time of greatest need.

Thank you for being part of our mission to inspire philanthropy across North Carolina.