Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation’s COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund

Deadline: 24-Jul-20

The Board of Directors of the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation established the EWVCF COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund to assist nonprofit organizations in the five-county region served by the Community Foundation (Jefferson, Berkeley, Morgan, Hampshire, and Hardy).

It focuses on critical needs in communities and is being administered as a flexible short-term fund to provide relief for a variety of unexpected costs. These grants are NOT of the scale to support larger nonprofit or public institutions that are strained by increased demand for services.

Although the majority of these grants will be in the $2,000 to $10,000 range, they want you to tell themwhat you believe your organization will truly need during the coming months. By doing so, you are helping them get a better grasp of the financial impact that COVID-19 is having on the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia.

Priority Levels

The Foundation plans to award grants in the following three funding priority levels:

Front Line Grants will fund community-based nonprofits that have increased demand for services due to COVID-19. These nonprofits have deep roots in community and a strong track-record serving people who are immediately and disproportionately suffering from this crisis.
Service-Challenged Grants fund nonprofits that are modifying their in-person service delivery modes extremely rapidly due to COVID-19 and need assistance to do so. These nonprofits likely need additional assistance to upgrade sanitation protocols and obtain cleaning supplies & service personnel.
Collateral Damage Grants fund nonprofits facing extreme difficulty because of lost revenue due to closures and cancellations, as well as other challenges.

Priority Populations

The Fund is also interested in supporting work that will benefit communities which are being disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, specifically:

Communities of color, including organizations led by and supporting People of Color;
Low-income workers, including gig, contractors, or those in the informal economy;
Persons experiencing or at risk of homelessness, including people living in shelters or on the street, survivors of domestic violence, youth (including LGBTQ youth), older individuals, chronically ill individuals, undocumented individuals, and returning citizens;
The LGBTQ+ community;
Immigrant communities, including the undocumented;
Opportunity youth (ages 16+) who are not connected to school or work, or who are at risk of dropping out of school, with an intentional focus on youth who have had interactions with Juvenile Justice and/or Child Welfare systems;
Children with unique needs distinguished by disabilities, IEPs, behavioral challenges, English Language Learners, foster care, and/or Child Protective Services;
Survivors of domestic violence, child abuse, intimate partner abuse, rape and other crime; and,
People who have health conditions that put them at higher risk for COVID, including older adults, pregnant women, and those who are immune compromised.