Immediate Changes in Response to COVID-19
Edited April 10, 2020
We know you have many friends, family, neighbors and coworkers whose health, livelihoods and safety are top of mind. We’ll keep this as brief as possible.
NWHF’s board of directors met and directed us to take the following actions:
Convert all open NWHF project grants and sponsorships to general operating support, retroactively to the grant start date.
Defer all grant reports for 90 days automatically.
Accelerate all grant payments due before June 30 to ASAP. We hope to have checks out in the next week.
Contribute any non-committed grant resources to rapid response funds at partner foundations and/or increase open grant amounts. Because we make multi-year grant commitments to organizations, this represents about 10% of our grantmaking budget.
Our meeting rooms are now closed through June 5. We’ll reassess mid-May to decide whether to extend this closure.
Participate in ways that meaningfully coordinate philanthropic responses, including through Grantmakers of Oregon & SW Washington and pooled funds at MRG Foundation, Women’s Foundation of Oregon & Oregon Community Foundation.
Consider future actions promptly that are responsive to evolving conditions. If you have an open NWHF grant, please consider this permission to reclassify and readjust. No need to check-in. We’ll send more formal notice in the coming days.
These are anxious, trying times. So much is at stake. So much feels unknown. We are inspired but not surprised by the many ways community members are rising to help one another. May our foundation similarly rise to meet what this occasion requires of us.
Thank you for all you do.