11 Things Philanthropy Can Do Now in Response to COVID-19

During this challenging time, AFN asks for its members and funders to continue to support your grantees and nonprofit partners. Here are some best practices that have been crowdsourced from funders across the country.

1. Convert project-based grants to unrestricted support.
2. Reduce what you ask of your grantees and nonprofit partners, such as postponing reporting requirements and deadlines, site visits, and other demands on their time.
3. Loosen or eliminate the restrictions on existing grants. Do not hold grantees responsible if conferences, events, and other project deliverables must be postponed or canceled. 
4. Change or accelerate payment schedules on existing grants.  
5. Check in with your grantees and lend your support. Ask if they need any immediate assistance.
6. Make new grants as unrestricted as possible.
7. Consider making bridge loans or rapid response funding available.
8. Contribute to community-based emergency response funds and other efforts to address economic impact on those most affected by this pandemic.
9. Communicate proactively and regularly about your decision-making and response to provide helpful information while not asking more of grantee partners. 
10. Commit to listening to your partners and especially to those communities least heard, lifting up their voices and experiences to inform public discourse and your own decision-making.
11. Learn from these emergency practices and share what they teach us about effective partnership and philanthropic support.