Dear Foundation friends,
As your community foundation, the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation is here for good. Especially when times are hard.
And right now is the hardest time we have faced in memory. The immediate pain from COVID-19 is staggering. We are hearing heartbreaking stories of anxiety, isolation, shortages and loss from residents and nonprofits across the state. And the long-term hardships are just beginning. It is time to act for our neighbors who are most vulnerable — with compassion, with vision and with focus.
To support critical work being done in our communities, the Foundation is opening a special “Community Crisis Action Fund” for Foundation donors and others. Please click here to learn more and to give. Never has your generosity been needed more.
We are seeding the fund with an initial allocation from existing Foundation resources, and expect to grant as much as $3 million in the next few weeks. That’s just the beginning because the need will only grow. Just yesterday, even before we opened the fund, a Foundation donor made a commitment of such generosity and compassion that it brought one of my colleagues to tears. Please consider that an invitation to do the same.
Your gifts to the Community Crisis Action Fund will empower action in three ways:
1. Immediate unrestricted grants to scores of nonprofits working on the front lines to reduce the pain and hardship from COVID-19 for our most vulnerable neighbors — food for hungry kids and seniors, shelter for homeless people and families, transportation, whatever assistance is needed wherever it is needed.
2. Strategic grants to help reduce the longer-term impact of COVID-19 on critical systems such as health care, emergency response, child care and food security — especially for marginalized children and families. These grants will complement and amplify other funding sources, including public appropriations.
3. Support for local emergency funds being set up by United Ways and other grassroots funders to get assistance directly to individuals and families who need it most.
This strategy was developed by our community impact team and informed by dozens of partners in the community.
Every penny of the Community Crisis Action Fund will go out to nonprofits doing the work that must be done. Every grant will be made by our staff, who are grounded in the issues and close to community. We will report back about how these funds are helping our neighbors and communities.
We are blessed to live in communities like ours in times like this. We all have roles to play — as neighbors, donors, volunteers, board members, nonprofit staff, public officials, business owners, health care workers, emergency responders.
We know how to step up when things are hard.
This is who we are.
Onward,
Richard Ober
President and CEO
P.S. We will be reaching out to our nonprofit community early next week to provide guidance on grant opportunities.
Related Stories
Pandemic-response fund helped NH through crisis and recovery
The Charitable Foundation launched the Community Crisis Action Fund in 2020, and generous people responded with donations ranging from $25 to $6 million. The fund was structured so that every penny in donations went into our communities. Grants funded everything from hunger relief to an emergency childcare system for essential workers, from health equity efforts to emergency rental assistance. The fund is now deactivated, and will be re-activated as needed to respond to future crises.
Concentric stories: New initiative eases process for telling pandemic story
"Our Story NH" project, which aims to provide a historical archive, launches new option for people to share stories quickly.
SOAR program helps young people thrive
The COVID-19 pandemic turned the world upside-down for children and teens, leaving families and schools looking for ways to help young people overcome feelings of profound uncertainty, anxiety and isolation. The SOAR program at Back in the Saddle Equine Therapy Center in Hopkinton, was designed specifically to help young people cope with COVID’s fallout.
