Baltimore Area Philanthropic Collaborative Raises $4.29 M to Deploy in COVID-19 Response Funding

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A group of sixteen funders in the Baltimore region have raised $4.29 M through an aligned funding effort, the COVID-19 Response Funding Collaborative of Greater Baltimore. Since its launch on April 9, the Collaborative has granted $1,136,579 to non-profit organizations supporting communities in Anne Arundel County, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Carroll County, and Harford County. This collaborative, in just over three weeks, has doubled the number of funders around the table and the amount committed to local organizations. “The needs in our community are immense and the burdens on our nonprofits enormous. This Collaborative makes requesting and receiving funds easier for nonprofits, is extremely fast with weekly decisions, and is making each of our individual philanthropic responses smarter and more responsive to needs in this emergency situation,” said Amy Gross, Executive Director of the France-Merrick Foundation.

The COVID-19 Response Funding Collaborative of Greater Baltimore developed and launched this application process with the intention of streamlining grant requests and creating a single point of entry for nonprofit organizations seeking to sustain, deepen, or pivot their operations to address critical needs in local communities resulting from the pandemic. Through this process, funders can quickly identify organizations that are best positioned to address gaps in critical services to vulnerable populations and disburse resources to support those efforts. Baltimore’s Promise, a nonprofit collective impact organization, is supporting the effort by serving as the administrative backbone, managing the implementation of the Collaborative, and functioning as the primary point of contact for applicants.

“This collaborative celebrates the extraordinary spirit of partnership we experience every day in our City, and the Weinberg Foundation is privileged to be a part of it,” said Rachel Garbow Monroe, President and CEO of the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation. “Uniting with other funders in the Baltimore area allows all of us to make an even greater impact on the communities we call home. We hope that working together to streamline the application process for our nonprofits will help to ease their burden during this unprecedented and incredibly challenging time."

Funds granted through the COVID-19 Response Funding Collaborative of Greater Baltimore are not intended to replace larger public systems-level responses to the current crisis. Applications are currently being considered to address issues such as access to food or other essential supplies; mental health and community coping; support for first responders and health care workers; information sharing; nonprofit sustainability; technology needs; and access to temporary housing. As public policy responses are implemented, funders will continually assess where gaps exist and how the collaborative COVID-19 response grant making can be most effective in addressing unmet, immediate needs.

Visit https://www.greaterbaltimorecovidresponse.org/ for more information. Nonprofit organizations in Baltimore City, as well as Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Carroll, and Harford Counties that wish to apply for funding from any of the participating funders may submit proposals via the Collaborative’s website: www.greaterbaltimorecovidresponse.org. Applications submitted will be reviewed for funding on a rolling basis.

The COVID-19 Response Funding Collaborative consists of sixteen funders, eleven with public commitments to the Collaborative: Abell Foundation, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Baltimore Community Foundation, the Bernard Family, France-Merrick Foundation, Goldseker Foundation, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Foundation, the Lerner Family, Rauch Foundation, and United Way of Central Maryland. Maryland Philanthropy Network is an advisor to the collaborative, assisting with outreach and communications to philanthropy across the region. Baltimore’s Promise serves as the administrative backbone of the Collaborative.