CDP announces $510,000 in grants to support COVID-19 recovery in the US

A lot has happened since the world shut down in March 2020. That’s when our global community changed in many ways, and the Center for Disaster Philanthropy launched its COVID-19 Response Fund.

Since our first round of COVID-19-related grants in April 2020, CDP has made more than 200 grants totaling $42,489,478 to more than 170 organizations worldwide. In December, we awarded the thirteenth and final round of U.S.-focused COVID-19 grants to three nonprofits totaling $510,000.

Our colleagues on the international grantmaking team, Alex Gray and Taylor Dudley, continue to make grants to international partners addressing the global aspects of the pandemic.

Focus areas for round 13 grantmaking

As always at CDP, our focus is on supporting the populations most marginalized and least likely to access resources to support their recovery. As we near the three-year mark of this pandemic, we continue to see some concerning trends exacerbating the issues created by the virus and the U.S. response to it.

Data shows that COVID-19 has a devastating effect on the learning and mental health of children and youth in the U.S. Additionally, our health care workforce has been decimated by low morale and difficult working conditions resulting in a severe staffing shortage, particularly in disproportionately affected communities. Further, myths about COVID-19 vaccines and equitable access to them remain a struggle for many parts of our population. With these latest grants, we seek to address these challenges and support those who continue to be most affected by the pandemic.

Awarded grants

DonorsChoose received $150,000 to run a 2X Match Offer on their giving site, doubling donations to teachers’ classrooms requesting resources for mental health learning loss resulting from COVID-19. Qualifying projects are from Equity Focus Schools, where most students come from low-income, Black, Native American or Latino households.

Healthcare Ready received $160,000 to assess the scope and impact of health care workforce losses in historically underserved communities disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The grant will also fund the development of culturally relevant training to support and expand the capacity of health care staff serving socially vulnerable communities through ongoing COVID-19 response and recovery.

Migrant Clinicians Network (MCN) received $200,000 to strengthen the prevention and mitigation of COVID-19 in the United States and its territories through capacity building and education of community health workers, clinicians, community advocates and teachers. With a focus on equity for rural, migrant and other historically marginalized communities, MCN enables clinicians to increase access to and provide quality, culturally relevant health care as well as reduce inequities through technical assistance, learning collaboratives, on-the-ground training, resource development and advocacy.

Though we expect this to be the final round of grantmaking to support recovery from the pandemic in the U.S., that doesn’t mean recovery is complete. We hope our fellow funders will join us as we apply what we’ve learned over the past three years to support equitable recovery from the many disasters that affect our communities.